JUDAS PRIEST: Point of Entry

Produced by Tom Allom

Released: 1981

Some people would suggest that I review Judas Priest a bit too much on this blog, but I love heavy metal and if it weren't for Priest, metal wouldn't exist. It took me more years than it perhaps should have to appreciate this particular truth however because the first of their albums that I ever heard was this, and it didn't really leave me with a great impression. In the 25 or so years since then I've had plenty of time to re-evaluate both Point of Entry and Judas Priest, but even so this still ranks as one of their weakest albums.

As always, there are some great tracks on here. Priest never fails at this, which is why even their most hit-and-miss releases -- like this one -- are worthwhile. Sometimes their albums tend to sag toward the middle before a couple of great tracks pick things up again, but on Point of Entry this isn't the case: the last half of this is utterly forgettable, meaning that you will lose nothing by turning it off after "Solar Angels" except the experience of hearing Judas Priest at their blandest and most mediocre. Up until then, of course, this isn't too bad but still a long way from British Steel or even Screaming for Vengeance, the two albums this bridges. "Heading Out to the Highway" is awesome, as virtually every opening track this band writes is, and was still being used as a set opener the first and only time I saw them live. "Don't Go" is the obvious radio single (but not obvious enough for Australian radio programming, of course) and not too bad as such things go. Next is "Hot Rockin'", undeniably one of the most ridiculous of all Judas Priest songs but one so catchy and fun it's impossible to resist, including the guitar solo that sounds, as a friend of mine once remarked "like the speakers are going to blow". "Desert Plains" and "Solar Angels" are also rather cool, hinting at the band's earlier sound particularly in regards to the psychedelic feel and the latter has Rob Halford's best vocal of the whole album.

After this, Point of Entry is just a waste of time, with the rest of the material coming across as if it were just thrown together to make up the playing-time. For this reason, this probably isn't the ideal place to develop a real appreciation for the might of Judas Priest and still notches up the lowest score I have given them so far.

1. Heading Out to the Highway
2. Don't Go
3. Hot Rockin'
4. Turning Circles
5. Desert Plains
6. Solar Angels
7. You Say Yes
8. All the Way
9. Troubleshooter
10. On the Run

Rating: 60%

LUCA TURILLI: The Infinite Wonders of Creation

Produced by Luca Turilli
Released: 2006

Luca Turilli is the guitairst and songwriter with Italian band Rhapsody of Fire (previously known as Rhapsody) and this review will show you that I can't say I've ever been much of a fan of that band and their plastic-sounding B-Grade spaghetti sword-and-sorcery film soundtrack music, and as such I wasn't looking forward to this. Released from the constraints of his main band, however, Luca Turilli has made the sort of album to which Rhapsody has only ever aspired.

The Infinite Wonders of Creation opens with a truly rousing orchestral piece that sounds like it came from the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings and is far more convincing than anything Rhapsody has ever done. This impressive beginning leads into a couple of Blind Guardian-style epic metal tracks, featuring a combination of soprano and tenor singers and solidly metal guitar lines and riffs. Being less than familiar with any of Turilli's other solo outings, this album reminded me at times of Therion, not just stylistically but in general.

The amalgamation of metal with the classical and operatic style is seamless and the overall concept is, as you could expect from Turilli, well executed. It's hard not to make comparisons with Rhapsody here, as I have done several times, and fans of that band should really love this. Even those who have no time for that band, however, may well appreciate The Infinite Wonders of Creation.

1. Secrets of Forgotten Ages
2. Mother Nature
3. Angels of the Winter Dawn
4. Altitudes
5. The Miracle of Life
6. Silver Moon
7. Cosmic Revelation
8. Pyramids and Stargates
9. Mystic and Divine
10. The Infinite Wonders of Creation

Rating: 76%

ICED EARTH: Alive in Athens: The DVD

Released: 2006

Iced Earth's 1999 double-live album Alive in Athens is this generation's Live After Death, one of the best live heavy metal albums of all time. The accompanying DVD statement, finally issued seven years after the triple CD and multi-LP box set, is a disappointingly flat and amateurish concert film. I'm pretty sure it's not what Jon Schaffer would have wanted to give to his fans, which is probably why Century Media waited until the band had moved to another label before they released it. And considering how much effort Schaffer puts into everything his band releases, it's pretty obvious that he had no say in Alive in Athens: The DVD. The booklet is just a reprise of the one from the CD and the footage is decidedly ordinary.

On the plus side, the audio is excellent, but if you've already got the CD or quintuple-vinyl version of this you'd already know that. As such, the DVD doesn't add much to the experience. If anything, it probably detracts from it, because when you watch a concert as long as this on TV, you really want something more than static camera angles, poor framing and unimaginative editing. Many criticised Iron Maiden's Rock in Rio DVD because of the myriad of quick edits, and while it's true that at times it was a bit of a headspin, their two and a half hour set never got boring.

By halfway through Alive in Athens, you'd swear you were watching the single most boring live band in history. Sure, 80% of Iced Earth's songs are based around the same riff, but I've never been bored by their albums. So either they are incredibly tedious live, or this DVD makes them out to be that way through amateurish production. Maybe it's a bit of both, as I've never been to an Iced Earth gig, but snappier editing would have made this far more enjoyable regardless.

I stuck with this for about two-thirds of the way, because I wanted to write a decent review, because I like Iced Earth and because I wanted this to get better. But it never did. By the end of "Dante's Inferno" I was considerably underwhelmed and by the end of "My Own Savior" I was stifling yawns. Live DVD albums aren't supposed to put people to sleep.

Alive in Athens: The DVD is doomed almost right from the start. The static camera angles cut off part of the stage so that even in the long shots, you rarely see Larry Tarnowski. The close-ups focus on Matt Barlow and Schaffer even when Tarnowski is soloing his tits off, as if whoever was directing didn't know which guy was the lead guitarist and the whole production is presented with virtually no inspiration whatsoever. When a band like Dungeon can make a lively and entertaining live concert DVD with virtually no budget at all, it's staggering to think how awful Alive in Athens turned out considering the budget a the band like Iced Earth probably had to work with. Even if you are a rabid fan (and IE has plenty of those), you should avoid this.

1. Intro
2. Burning Times
3. Vengeance is Mine
4. Dark Saga
5. Last Laugh
6. Cast in Stone
7. Last December
8. Pure Evil
9. Desert Rain
10. Dante's Inferno
11. The Hunter
12. Melancholy (Holy Martyr)
13. Angel's Holocaust
14. Stormrider
15. The Path I Choose
16. Watching Over Me
17. Diary
18. Blessed Are You
19. When the Night Falls
20. My Own Savior
21. Travel in Stygian
22. Violate
23. Stand Alone
24. Brainwashed
25. Disciples of the Lie
26. I Died For You
27. Prophecy
28. Birth of the Wicked
29. The Coming Curse
30. Epilog

Rating: 54%

MORTAL SIN: An Absence of Faith

Produced by Phil McKellar

Released: 2007

An absence of faith is probably a good way to describe my attitude toward Mortal Sin when they first got back together – yet again – a few years back. But after seeing them live a few times to find them better than they ever were, my belief was rekindled. After just one spin of this corker I was almost as ready as I was back in 1986 to shout their praises from the rooftops.

You can usually tell how good an album is going to be from the very first moment. “Out of Darkness” immediately proclaims An Absence of Faith to be a really good album. It has both raw melodic catchiness and a driving groove, thus combining the band’s archetypal sound with a modern feel. When it comes to classic bands, only the best can try this and pull it off without looking like has-beens. Mortal Sin nails it time and again with a virtually endless procession of hook-laden riffs, sustained dual-guitar interplay and memorable choruses. One of the most pleasing aspects of An Absence of Faith is that Mat Maurer’s vocal delivery has developed a well-apparent depth and diversity. Similarly, his lyric-writing has also matured, making his pointed political statements far more barbed.

“Deadman Walking”, “Before the Bough Breaks” and “Rise or Fall” are all deadset rippers, paying obvious respect to the band’s origins but without sounding dated. The epic “Tears of Redemption” is the obvious centerpiece, acting both as sequel and update to “Lebanon” and a tribute to Mayhemic Destruction. This is, however, the track I like the least as it sounds like the band is trying just a little too hard. Maurer throws in an entire verse that strings together titles from the first album and the chorus with its "I refuse to be a Muslim" refrain just didn't work for me. “My Nightmare” and “Say Your Prayers” also prove that they can’t all be gems, but the great moments far outweigh the lesser ones. “Eye in the Sky” and “Broken Promises” round out the album just as well as the early tracks begin it, with darting solos from Nathan Shea and Mick Sultana and rumbling drums from Luke Cook, combined with more of Maurer’s topical observations.

If you aren’t banging your head within fifteen seconds of this album kicking in, and keeping it up for most of the next 48 minutes, you simply don’t deserve to live.

1. Out of the Darkness
2. Deadman Walking
3. Tears of Redemption
4. Before the Bough Breaks
5. Rise or Fall
6. My Nightmare
7. Say Your Prayers
8. Lost Within
9. Eye in the Sky
10. Broken Promises

Rating: 85%

STRAPPING YOUNG LAD: City

Produced by Devin Townsend

Released: 1997

What do you do when your previous album sold a stunning 120 copies in the US alone, you have no band, no money and you're sleeping on your A&R guy's sofa eating noodles and margarine and listening to Morbid Angel and Shihad? If you're Devin Townsend, you write some of the angriest and most intense heavy metal music of all, get Gene Hoglan to play drums for you and record them as City.

City really is the last word in angry music, created not by a group on its way to being comfortable millionaires pissed off about being heckled or getting bad reviews but by a frustrated genius existing hand-to-mouth for months. Sure, there's some other guys who play on this, but City is Devin Townsend's album; it is his energy, vision and rage that drives it smashing through every pre-conceived idea about intensity and extremity. To the untrained ear or a first-time listener, this will be nothing but a ceaseless cacophony as Townsend crams every space with as much noise as possible. It sounds at first like extremity for the sake of it, but as overwhelming as the relentless, multi-tracked guitar onslaught is, repeated listenings reveal Strapping Young Lad's genius for infectious hooks and melodies that surprise with their ability to seemingly come from nowhere and add further dimensions to the music. There is also Townsend's bizarre sense of irony, with his minimalistic, stream-of-consciousness lyrics both evoking his frustrations and rage and poking fun at the ludicrous extremity of metal.

And, as mentioned several times already, City is ludicrously extreme. "Oh My Fucking God" is one of the heaviest, most full-on and over-the-top examples of industrial grind ever recorded with Townsend's apoplectic vocals pushing the envelope into the realms of the truly insane. Similarly, "All Hail the New Flesh" and "Detox" are triumphs of noise and total chaos but even there a cleverly-timed keyboard surge or poppy melody will suddenly burst forth, making you wonder how they ever got there in the first place. "Home Nucleonics" is another crushing barrage but in "AAA" a monstrous groove takes precedence until "Underneath the Waves" unleashes further mayhem. The Cop Shoot Cop cover "Room 429" gets in the way a bit, somewhat breaking the flow of the album because the epic, surging "Spirituality" would be the perfect way to come in after the layered screaming of "Underneath the Waves". A minor quibble however, because CSC was a major inspiration for City so the homage is somewhat deserved.

This is an exhausting and overwhelming work, a masterpiece that combines both bombast and subtlety in a curious and staggering unison and a statement in the extreme that may never be matched.

1. Velvet Kervorkian
2. All Hail the New Flesh
3. Oh My Fucking God
4. Detox
5. Home Nucleonics
6. AAA
7. Underneath the Waves
8. Room 429
9. Spirituality

Rating: 100%

HERRATIK: Wrath-Divine

Produced by Astennu

Released: 2006

After five years working under the name Abortus, under which they issued two albums, this Sydney band changed its name to Herratik in mid-2003. Wrath-Divine was recorded in October 2004, but saw release only in mid-2006 through British label Copro. The album sees Herratik taking up precisely where they had left off with Process of Elimination, with a furious barrage of blasting, thrashing death metal. Production-wise, this is something of an improvement on the abominable sound of that previous release; Wrath-Divine retains the band’s signature sound but producer Astennu’s experienced hand has given it considerably more definition.

Herratik’s attack is a truly ferocious noise built on raw and ridiculously overdriven, distorted guitars that takes its cues from underground European extremists like good friends Mystic Circle, whose former drummer Necrodemon provided the beats for Wrath-Divine. The album then is pretty relentless, bludgeoning the listener with a mixture of crushing guitar volume and speed virtually from the outset.

“I, Heretic” and “Dance on Your Grave” are quite sturdy openers, raging, furious and loud. As strongly as the album begins though, Wrath-Divine is ultimately let down by a distinct lack of ideas and variety. By track six the songs have become less and less distinguishable from one another and there’s a marked lack of real diversity beyond the blitzkrieg-like pace and delivery. Coupled with that is the feeling that almost every song seems at least a minute too long, with a lot of verbose but over-repetitive lyrics, as if they didn't know how to bring things to an end.

With four Abortus-era tracks tacked on to the end, Wrath-Divine runs for an exhausting sixty-four minutes, which is far too long for almost any album and certainly one as samey-sounding as this.

1. Intro - The Holy Plan
2. I, Heretic
3. Dance on Your Grave
4. Above Your Lies
5. New Gods
6. Wrath-Divine
7. X
8. Forget Me Father
9. New Era
10. Forked Tongue
11. Take You Down
12. Sadist-fy
13. Process of Elimination
14. Re-pray

Rating: 50%

ANARION: Unbroken

Released: 2006

Melbourne’s Anarion has come a very long way since their first album The Journey Begins… from 2001. Indeed, Unbroken is perhaps one of the best Australian metal releases of 2006, albeit a greatly undiscovered one. This is an album of unabashed heavy metal, an excellently-produced volume of grace, style and speed that is a far cry from the ritualistic power metal evident on their debut.

As good as this album is, Unbroken does start off on shaky ground. The very first track is a pure speed metal belter that would be a true gem if the entire bridge section wasn’t a direct Strapping Young Lad rip-off, the blatancy of which left me thoroughly aghast. Beyond this audaciously plagaristic act, however, Anarion has made a terribly strong and original sounding album. It’s always good when a band takes the time to analyse what they need to do and how they want to sound and Anarion has obviously done a lot of homework. The songwriting is drastically improved, resulting in catchy, flowing tracks.

The playing was always quite good but on Unbroken the band pull off some truly spectacular and breathtaking moves including some mind-numbingly face-melting guitar solos that would leave even some far more established players gasping in awe. Vocally, Riccardo Mecchi is melodic and powerful without sounding like a million other power metal singers, something that could be said for Anarion as a unit. While they can no doubt be considered among the legions of power metal acts, Anarion’s music is distinctive and draws from a wide and diverse frame of reference that encompasses a range of genres.

If there was a need, the closest Australian artist I could compare them to is possibly Dungeon, whose sound they admittedly do come close to at times (certainly fans of that band would love this), but Unbroken shows Anarion to be a band that is developing a sturdy sense of identity and with material as strong as this deserve to have a bigger share of the national metal stage.

1. New Eyes, Old Lies
2. Blind Mortality
3. Greed of Man
4. Live in Me
5. Broken Truths
6. Below
7. Conflicting Self
8. Buried
9. Another Level

Rating: 90%

BRIDES OF DESTRUCTION: Runaway Brides

Released: 2006

One of these days I'll get around to reviewing the first Brides of Destruction album Here Come the Brides, which came as a complete surprise to me. This combination of punk rock attitude and spitfire sleaze rock was over too soon but left other 80s stars making comebacks lying bleeding in its wake and remains one of the few albums I have in its entirety on my iPod. Afterwards, Nikki Sixx went back to the circus that is Motley Crue and while he left the Brides a bunch of songs they really weren’t able to recover. I asked a friend what this was like and was told it was a disappointment, but I didn't know how much of a disappointment that would be until I managed to get a copy.

Runaway Brides misfires to about the same degree Here Come the Brides went off. The songwriting isn’t quite there, the production is slicker and more commercial, thereby taking away the street-level edge the band had before, and both Tracii Guns and London LeGrande seem far more restrained. LeGrande’s vocal dexterity and Guns’ blazing lead guitar were part of what made the debut album cook, but here it sounds like someone told them they should stop having such a great time. LeGrande actually sounds terrible on this, leaving me to wonder whether his performance on the first album was some kind of lucky fluke. There are five more songs here than on the debut, which gives it the running time of a complete album but as none of them are actually memorable it hardly seems worth the effort. Even the ones Nikki co-wrote are simply forgettable.

Tracii Guns has always managed to just miss the boat when it comes to real success and with Runaway Brides it he did it again. BoD pretty much came to a halt after this, which was a real shame, because the first album was awesome.

1. Aunt Biente
2. Lords of the Mind
3. Deadman's Ruin
4. Criminal
5. This Time Around
6. White Trash
7. Brothers
8. Never Say Never
9. Blown Away
10. Porcelain Queen
11. White Horse
12. Tunnel of Love
13. Dimes in Heaven

Rating: 25%

BRAND NEW SIN: Tequila

Produced by Joey Z and Brand New Sin

Released: 2006

Brand New Sin’s previous album Recipe for Disaster was one of the most over-rated CDs of 2005. Apart from one song, I couldn’t see the value in it at all. One year later the band delivered Tequila, which is an altogether different proposition. This is the album that everyone was telling me Recipe for Disaster was supposed to be. Brand New Sin plays heavier, dirtier and meaner than on the last outing, and Tequila is thus far more satisfying. All that time on the road hanging out with Zakk Wylde, Pepper Keenan and Lemmy really paid off and they proceeded to come out with a set that the first of those gentlemen would likely be proud to call his own. This is down home southern fried heavy rock, the type you might hear in a biker bar just before an epic fight breaks out, and then with the next track becomes the soundtrack to the fight.

“Said and Done” drifts in like the Man With No Name and then swings into action with a huge slab-like groove and “Did Me Wrong” follows with metallic riff-heavy rock. Then comes “Spare the Agony”, a moodier piece with a slow-building intro of clean guitar over a rumbling bass line. This one could well have come off Black Label Society’s Mafia set. “Old” has a real commercial hook but is far too heavy for radio to play and “Motormeth” is pure flat-to-the-floor rocking. Short segments of dark acoustic guitar are sprinkled through the album too, adding a sense of overall diversity, and it winds up with a really cool version of “House of the Rising Sun” that starts out as a nicely brooding blues before loudly kicking into top gear near the end.

Whatever they might have promised before that I felt they couldn’t deliver, Brand New Sin certainly brought it home this time.

1. Said and Done
2. Did Me Wrong
3. Spare the Agony
4. Ice Man
5. The Proposition
6. Old
7. Worm Whore
8. See the Sun
9. Motormeth
10. Numero Dos
11. Elogio
12. Reaper Man
13. Acehole
14. House of the Rising Sun

Rating: 85%

RHAPSODY: Symphony of Enchanted Lands II - The Dark Secret

Produced by Luca Turilli and Alex Staropoli

Released: 2004

This is the second part of the Enchanted Lands saga that Italy’s most gloriously over-the-top band began in 1998. It is quite rightly labelled a symphony because, honestly, this album isn’t really metal and barely even rock.

Symphony of Enchanted Lands II is about as heavy as a tissue box and as metal as the tissues inside. It’s classical music with the occasional intrusion of rock instruments, mostly keyboards with some guitars now and then. Indeed, Luca Turilli’s guitar is buried so low in the mix the riffing is almost non-existent. Once in a while, he does come to the fore, most notably on the sprawling “Sacred Power of Raging Winds” when the guitar takes on the lead violinist role in an extended interplay with flutes, which sound synthesised but apparently are not.

Overall however, this doesn’t offer much more than what Rhapsody has done previously, even if, with the use of a 60-piece orchestra, a choir and veteran actor Christopher Lee providing the narrative parts, it is significantly more impressively executed than before. The band’s obsession with Lord of the Rings-style sagas is almost grossly out of hand, with entire lyrical passages virtually torn directly from Tolkien’s pages and no matter how hard they try it’s difficult to take songs with lines like “The dragons are flying in the blue skies” seriously. Fabio Leone’s vocals let the side down as well, wavering between excellent to close to awful and try as he might he still can’t quite get a grip on English phrasing. Lee’s work is, as you’d expect, nothing short of brilliant here, but rather than help the story it sometimes gets in the way: this album is 72 minutes long and the narrative sections take up almost a quarter of that time.

Rhapsody’s fans most likely really enjoy this but it is really far too pompous and overdone for anyone else.

1. The Dark Secret (The Ancient Prophecy - Ira Divina)
2. Unholy Warcry
3. Never Forgotten Heroes
4. Elgard's Green Valleys
5. The Magic of the Wizard's Dream
6. Erian's Mystical Rhymes/The White Dragon's Order
7. The Last Angel's Call
8. Dragonland's Rivers
9. Sacred Power of Raging Winds
10. Guardiani del Destino
11. Shadows of Death
12. Nightfall on the Grey Mountains

Rating: 40%