NEVERMORE: Dead Heart in a Dead World

Produced by Andy Sneap

Released: 2000

Nevermore toured Australian about a year before this album came out; in hindsight as much fun as that tour was with Warrel Dane and Jeff Loomis stage-diving every night and Dane drinking himself into oblivion at every opportunity, the entire jaunt may have been a bit more successful for them had they come out on the back on this monster. Dead Heart in the Dead World is an absolute modern metal classic, an album that helped define the genre into the 21st Century. Before this, Nevermore was just a good band that made good albums. Afterwards, they were legends.

Some still critique Dead Heart in a Dead World for being less technical and less diverse than previous albums, but in place of those aspects Nevermore became darker, heavier and catchier. This was Warrel Dane's best vocal performance to date and stripping back the line-up to a four piece helped tighten the songwriting and gave the band more direction. "Narcosynthesis" makes an impact immediately, driving, heavy and so inimitably catchy that the chorus sticks in your head long after the album is over. Loomis adopted the use of seven-string guitars for this recording, lending a nu-metal edge to the band's bottom end. This led to a backlash from purists opposed to anything even remotely resembling Korn (and this is far from that), but the band had not forgotten their old-school melodic metal riffing. This actually gave Nevermore a unique style yet one that was reminiscent of that other great Seattle progressive metal band: Queensrÿche.

As dark as that band could be however, nothing compared to Warrel Dane's bleak tales of the human condition. His lyrics are stark, humbling and depressing to the point where they would be almost impossible to listen to much less enjoy if the music that frames them wasn't so good. Jim Sheppard and Van Williams are solid of course but the real star is Loomis, whose mastery of the guitar became truly apparent on this album. If there is a criticism, it is that some of the riffs sound rather similar to each other here and there, but this is only a minor quibble that can be overlooked by the strength of the material. "The River Dragon is Come" is perhaps the highlight, with all the pieces working together perfectly but in truth there isn't a bad song here. Their version of "The Sound of Silence" boasts a true menace, "Insignificant" is utterly humbling, "The Heart Collector" sounds like emptiness.

Through the rejection of all religions, to a dedication to an incarcerated friend, to the smallness of humanity, Nevermore produced a stunning journey of emotional metal with Dead Heart in a Dead World. They have yet to make a bad album, but this one is a true masterpiece.

1. Narcosynthesis
2. We Disintegrate
3. Inside Four Walls
4. Evolution 169
5. The River Dragon Has Come
6. The Heart Collector
7. Engines of Hate
8. Sounds of Silence
9. Insignificant
10. Believe in Nothing
11. Dead Heart in a Dead World

Rating: 98%

NB: A lot of people seem to think that this album is called Dead Heart, in a Dead World with a comma, but the little comma-like serif on the toe of the t in the title is actually a quirk of the font and not a comma at all. Careful inspection of the rest of the booklet reveals the "comma" attached to every t, making "Narcosynt,hesis", "Evolut,ion 169", "T,he River Dragon has Come," etc. Therefore, it's not a comma. Stop it!

VARIOUS ARTISTS: Nativity in Black

Executive Producer: Bob Chiappardi
Released: 1994

These days it's easy to be cynical about so-called tribute albums. Different ones seem to crop up all the time for various reasons, from fund-raising to memorials to plain exploitation by a label or artist. It's also fair to say that almost all of them are worthless beyond a couple of songs of two, if that.

But not this one. The second volume that appeared a few years later may have been just a cynical promotional tool for Ozzfest, but this one had some effort put into it. Indeed, according to the booklet, Bob Chiappardi spent two years on this. This amount of dedication really shows, because Nativity in Black is one of the best albums of its kind. Apart from Faith No More's rather flippant live reading of "War Pigs" (a song that Mike Patton reportedly really didn't like), all of the artists here treat the material with a deep respect and for the most part their versions are solid re-interpretations rather than attempts at straight covers. It's hard to pick a bad one out of this bunch, in fact. Clear highlights though are the ridiculously heavy version of "Supernaut" from Al Jourgenson's 1000 Homo DJ's and Type O Negative's creepily Hammer House of Horror-like "Black Sabbath" that ends with an invocation to Satan. Corrosion of Conformity's deliriously good "Lord of This World" is also a clear stand-out and Sepultura make "Symptom of the Universe" sound like one of their own songs. Bruce Dickinson was teamed with a flash-in-the-pan American thrash band called Godspeed for "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and made something special from it. Just as special though is track eight, a version of "The Wizard" by a conglomeration calling itself Bullring Brummies aka Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, Rob Halford, Wino from St. Vitus and Fight's guitarist Brian Tilse. That's a slice of metal history right there people, and with this being the only recording they ever did together it makes Nativity in Black that much more significant. Versions released out the US also include a version of "Solitude" by Cathedral that was obviously stuck on as an after thought, although the band themselves didn't think of it as one and considering how much like Sabbath Cathedral is for them to mess it up would have been unthinkable.

Tribute albums come and go, but the truly great ones leave a mark of their own. Nativity in Black is one of those. It might be difficult to find these days, but it's worth the effort.

1. Biohazard - After Forever


2. White Zombie - Children of the Grave


3. Megadeth - Paranoid


4. 1000 Homo DJ's - Supernaut


5. Ozzy Osbourne with Therapy? - Iron Man


6. Corrosion of Conformity - Lord of This World


7. Sepultura - Symptom of the Universe


8. Bullring Brummies - The Wizard


9. Bruce Dickinson with Godspeed - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath


10. Ugly Kid Joe - N.I.B.


11. Faith No More - War Pigs


12. Type O Negative - Black Sabbath


13. Cathedral - Solitude

Rating: 95%

CRIMSONFIRE: Crimsonfire

Released: 2005

Crimsonfire seems to be another one of those bands that has existed for years without really getting anywhere or doing anything. If this album is any indication, it isn't hard to see why. Despite having been around since 1998, they aren't a name that's too well known to many metal fans outside of Melbourne. After several years of gigging and songwriting, the band's self-titled debut album appeared without too much fanfare on US retro/melodic metal label Majestic Rock.

Crimsonfire contains ten tracks of European-style melodic power metal along very similar lines to bands like Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius, and as a local alternative to those two groups, one could really ask for none better. Crimsonfire's songs are well-played with a high degree of insidious melodies, and a lyrical obsession with fire, eternity and legendary realms. That ought to stir some level of interest among those who covet such things, but the truth of it is that Crimsonfire is a remarkably faceless offering. Outside of a couple of breathtaking screams from singer Louie Gorgievski, this album has very little in the way of highlights. Even after several listens, not much stands out. The material is on a par with anything the European hordes could come up with but, like many of them, Crimsonfire does very little with it. With a runing time of almost an hour, these should be at least one memorable or noteworthy moment on here, but there really isn't. There simply isn't one single fresh idea among any of the ten songs here.

Crimsonfire is merely a very good bunch of musicians playing incredibly generic music very well, but for a band trying to establish itself in an over-crowded marketplace, that just isn't good enough.

1. Eternal Days
2. A New Dawn
3. Reign in Fire
4. Morning of the Magicians
5. The Age of Aquarius
6. Empire of Fear
7. Darkside to Sanity
8. Region of Legends
9. Tears in a Greystorm
10. The Rising Sands

Rating: 40%

JUDAS PRIEST - Interview with KK Downing

OK, this isn't a review. But you don't get to interview one of the founding fathers of heavy metal very often. This was recorded tonight, over the speaker-phone function of my mobile phone. The signal from the phone just about cooked the tape I was using so it hard to transcribe everything he said. I think I got most of it though.

ME: Thank you for taking the time tonight, KK. Let's get straight to it: a huge double concept album is something that people would probably expect more from Dream Theater or even Iron Maiden, nor Judas Priest. What brought about the decision to do this, and why Nostradamus?

KK Downing: Well we're a band that's been around for a long time and there's been times when we've been really, really popular. But no matter what you do you will always find people will find something to criticise you for. We've done a lot of records now and we've always tried for consistency. Even after our comeback record Angel of Retribution there was people saying, "Where can Judas Priest go next? Where can they go from here?" You're always in a no-win situation when you're in a popular band. Even a band like AC/DC... They're a great band, but they're always being accused of making the same record over and over. So when people were saying, "What can Judas Priest do next?" We were like, "Well, what can we do next? What can we fuckin' do next? Let's do a double CD, triple vinyl, forty-eight page colour booklet, something we've never done before. Let's just show 'em!"

ME: Are you looking forward to visiting Australia again?

KK: Absolutely mate! We had an absolute blast the first time we came down with Ripper, so you know we wanted to come down and do the full show with Rob because we just knew that we owed it to the fans that have been following us for so many years.

ME: I notice from the shows you've done so far that you're doing a lot of different songs from when you were here last. It's almost a totally different set.

KK: Yeah, but we'll have to change it a little bit before we even get to Australia, because with the internet and everything now people know what you're playing. So as the record progresses - it's only come out this week - we might change some of the songs we're playing off that as well. But it's going to be loads of fun, really. I've just heard today that the tickets are getting along really well there and it's not for some time yet.

ME: Now you guys are veterans of some pretty big shows. I hope you can indulge me for a second because this might seem a little strange for someone to ask after so long but you're the first person I've ever spoke to who played at Live Aid. What was that like for you?

KK: Haha. Well that was a long time ago! We were actually recording I think, um, the Turbo album. We weren’t that far away. We were in the Bahamas. It sounds very nice, but we were just stuck in the studio. You know what I mean? So we just jumped on a plane and went up to Philadelphia and played our set, it was really a great day. But that was one of the greatest memories I can bring to the forefront, for sure.

ME: Getting back to the present now, you’re probably playing the biggest rooms we’ve got here. I assume that means we are going to get the full Judas Priest treatment?

KK: Yeah well I don’t know if the supports have been booked yet, but it will be a full-on Judas Priest show. It costs us a bit when we have to fly, but when we get together as Judas Priest, full strength, we spend all our money on making our show the best it can be you know. It might cost us thousands of dollars just to fly to South America to play six shows, but that’s what we do when we get together as a group. And that’s what we’ll do when we come down there as well.

ME: You’re actually doing the tour with Max Cavalera’s band.

KK: Oh well, that will be a good night of intense metal then, that’s for sure. We’ve just done some shows with Max in Europe, so we got to meet them. We played with them and Iced Earth and Airbourne, a really great band from down there. We got to meet those guys so it will be good to catch up with them again.

ME: So what more can you tell me about Nostradamus and where Judas Priest is likely to go from here?

KK: Well I’ll say this for Judas Priest. Like I said before, people have liked us. We’ve always tried to be consistent but even when you are consistent people will think differently about each thing you do. Like with Painkiller, that album that everybody now thinks is supposedly so great. It took years for that record to get to where people think of it now. It entered the Billboard chart at something like 65… Nostradamus, not even the first week, at #11. You know what I mean? Angel of Retribution, our last album, went in at #13. Painkiller was way down there. So was British Steel and so was Screaming for Vengeance… So sometimes it can take a while for an album to get to that level. The Nostradamus album, it is different. They talk about people’s attention spans being very short these days. But people still sit down and read a good book, watch a good movie, so why not sit down and hear a good album? This album really means what it is. Try to listen to it from the beginning to the end, because it is a full documentation of the life of Nostradamus. He was a figure from 500 years ago who is still very much talked about today. When we delved into the history of Nostradamus… we’ve done loads and loads of mini-movies if you like about the Painkiller, Metallion, Electric Eye… all those fictional things. We just applied that to a real historical figure. He was an alchemist and a doctor who lost his family in the plague, and he predicted the death of the king at the time which is what he was persecuted for. He was persecuted by the Church and sanctioned, but he was also a doctor who wanted to help people and I think he looked into the future so he could find ways to help others. I’m sure there was other major figures I suppose, like Adolf Hitler or Mussolini… warmongering ones, that we could have looked at, but we wanted a peace-seeker, a knowledge seeker. And I think that we might have had a lot in common with him because he was always looking for things, searching for meaning. I think that if he was with us now, if he was to come out on tour with us, we would probably find a lot of common ground in the way we have been treated by people and what we have tried to attain.

ME: I’m glad you mentioned that, because I was going to ask if you could see a similarity between Judas Priest and the life of Nostradamus in the way you have been sanctioned and accused of Satanism and such things?

KK: Yeah. Well we often say you can’t do right by doing wrong. He tried to help but he still got into trouble. The whole story is interesting. I didn’t know anything about what Nostradamus was really about other than what you normally hear. But we didn’t really touch on any of his prophecies. It was about his life. We certainly couldn’t think of a more ideal person with such a wide interest to people. It’s a good story.

[Some label dude broke in then and told me my 15 minutes was up. I still wanted to ask KK about those cheesy early videos where they pulled bank robberies with their guitars and danced around playing guitars that were on fire, and stuff, but alas... no time]

ME: Well thanks KK, I have to wrap it up now. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us this evening.

KK: Thank you Brian. Thank for the support with the site and everything. Tell all the fans it’s been a long time, but Judas Priest is coming!

So there you go - JUDAS PRIEST IS COMING!

NAPALM DEATH: Leaders Not Followers: Pt 2

Produced by Russ Russell
Released: 2004

If ever a phrase has suited a band, ‘leaders not followers’ suits Napalm Death like a glove. The originators of grindcore have bowed to none throughout their career but here once again, one of the world’s greatest ever extreme metal bands pays tribute to a long list of others that were also leaders in their field. From hardcore to thrash to death metal, the band has gathered 19 songs from 18 bands and given them the Napalm Death treatment: brutal, crushing and uncompromising.

Albums of covers can be dodgy affairs, especially when bands try to tackle material that doesn’t suit them, and many of them have cropped up over the years mainly as contract-fillers and a lot of them can be lousy. This one is not. It certainly helps that a lot of these songs could almost have come from Napalm’s own catalogue: ‘War’s No Fairytale’ by Discharge, for example, The Offenders’ incendiary ‘Face Down in the Dirt’ – one of the clear highlights here – or Anti-Cimex’ ‘Game of the Arseholes’ with its classic “Take your fucking cross and stick it up your arse!” line (one of their early bassists, Jim Whiteley, plays on the first and last of these). Other songs like Hellhammer’s ‘Messiah’, Kreator’s ‘Riot of Violence’ – one of the longest songs this band has ever recorded – and Sepultura’s ‘Troops of Doom’ could have been a stretch, but they’re not. Napalm Death handles them all with the respect they obviously hold for them, even Wehrmacht’s ‘Fright Night’, which seems impossibly melodic for this band.

As far as albums of covers go, this is one of the best. Leaders Not Followers: Pt 2 is ugly, savage and uniquely Napalm Death.

1. Lowlife
2. Face Down in the Dirt
3. Devastation
4. Messiah
5. Victims of a Bomb Raid
6. Fright Night
7. War's No Fairytale
8. Conform
9. Master
10. Fire Death Fate
11. Riot of Violence
12. Game of the Arseholes
13. Clangor of War
14. Dope Fiend
15. I'm Tired
16. Troops of Doom
17. Bedtime Story
18. Blind Justice
19. Hate, Fear and Power

Rating: 85%

NO RETURN: Machinery

Released: 2002

I knew very little about No Return when I first heard this album, and I still know very little about them. I know they are from Paris and have been around almost 20 years. Apparently they change their sound a bit with every release. That's about the limit of my knowledge, but from what I know I would say they’re an undiscovered treasure.

Machinery is a mixture of modern thrash and death metal and indsutrial metal like Fear Factory. Many bands were trying this around the same period this came out and failed to make it work, but with five previous and virtually unknown releases behind them, No Return had plenty of practice, all of which they poured into this release. This album hits like a freight train, a heavy and high speed collision of catchy melodies, savage, crunchy riffs and tight playing, resulting in a fast-paced, heavy and furious metal that with its inherently hook-laden songs holds a commercial edge without losing any of its power.

No Return’s sound recalls many schools of metal but rather than choosing one and running with it, this band mixes them all, and if you’ve ever wondered what that would sound like when done properly then Machinery is what you’ve been looking for. They use keyboards and samples too, but only to provide a little space and variation without overwhelming all the great metal aspects. This was by all accounts the first time they had added this element and it works rather well. I have no idea how their other albums compare, because they are all on small French label so finding them wouldn't be easy. I did enjoy this however so I am a bit curious as to what some of them might be like.

Machinery is a hidden gem that should have won more attention.

1. Machinery
2. The Recycler
3. Violator
4. Synthetic
5. Disillusion
6. Virus
7. Resurrection
8. Disease
9. Dynamo
10. The Last Act
11. Biomechanoid
12. Secret Face

Rating: 70%

MESSIAH'S KISS: Dragonheart

Released: 2007

Messiah's Kiss disappointed me with their previous album, Metal. From the cool retro-esque style they had cultivated on Prayer for the Dying, they had gone all plastic Euro-power metal on me. Perhaps I'm not the only one who thought they'd done the wrong thing with this move, because Dragonheart strikes a nice balance between both.

For every big, mid-paced HammerFall-style epic like "Babylon" and "Thunders of the Night", they chuck in a ball-tearing belter like "Nocturnal" to balance things out. Each time they go into a modern power-metal cheese direction with something like "Where the Falcons Cry" (which is almost as cringingly bad as it sounds), Messiah's Kiss then steps back to the forge to renew the glories of the old days. The title track sounds so much like Judas Priest with its overlapping high-pitched wails and rapid-fire vocal delivery of lyrics about steel, fire and Hell that I had to make sure I hadn't put Stained Class on by mistake. Ditto for "Steelrider", and the "Do it! Do it!" refrain from "Open Fire" couldn't possibly be a mere coincidence.

This was precisely the kind of stuff that I liked about Messiah's Kiss in the first place. Dragonheart is so gloriously metal, so shameless and bald-faced in its virtual plagiarism of Priest and Accept and so unashamed of what it is that it doesn't really matter that there's virtually no originality about it whatsoever. It's a melting-pot of old school influences that the band has worked into an almost-perfect homage of everything metal without it turning into a parody of itself. It's about ten minutes shorter than Metal was too, and that's also a bonus.

If they could just shake off the temptation to throw in a power metal song every now and then, they could give Primal Fear a good run for their money.

1. The Ancient Cries
2. Babylon
3. Where the Falcons Cry
4. Dragonheart
5. Thunder of the Night
6. Steelrider
7. City of Angels
8. Nocturnal
9. Northern Nights
10. Open Fire
11. The Ivory Gates

Rating: 72%

BLACK MAJESTY: Tomorrowland

Released: 2007

Three albums into their career and Black Majesty seems to have hit a wall. Their first album was truly awesome and the second almost equally as good, both containing certain hallmarks that made Black Majesty stand out a little from other acts of their kind. With Tomorrowland however, they seem to be slipping towards a safe, generic direction.

The first track, "Forever Damned", has that oh-so-typical European power metal sound about it and the production of the album overall only emphasises this feeling. There's also an inherent sameness about a lot of the material that stops this well short of being the triumphs that its predecessors were. The presence of an underdone cover in the middle of the track listing further underlines the apparent dimming of Black Majesty's creative spark.

Tomorrowland's first few songs suffer from sounding rather too much like standard Euro-power metal, without very much to make them particularly memorable. They float around inside your head but even after a few spins nothing really stands out. Considering how catchy their previous material is, this is rather a let down. Halfway through is "Soldier of Fortune", an obscure Deep Purple track from the ill-favoured Stormbringer album that seems to be here simply because it is obscure.

The guitar work however, is nothing short of stellar, especially on the last half of the album. Steve Janevski and Hanny Mohammed really know their way around a fretboard and the soloing in cuts like "Faces of War" and "Another Dawn" would stop a clock. Indeed, Tomorrowland really picks up about halfway through. From this point on, Black Majesty shifts up a gear with a little more inspiration in the songs and Gio Cavallere testing out his range, most notably on the closing song "Scars". Overall, though, Tomorrowland is something of a disappointment compared to previous efforts and Black Majesty needs to address their approach lest they become just another faceless power metal band like so many others.

1. Forever Damned
2. Into the Black
3. Evil in Your Eyes
4. Tomorrowland
5. Soldier of Fortune
6. Bleeding World
7. Faces of War
8. Wings to Fly
9. Another Dawn
10. Scars

Rating: 64%

SINERGY: Suicide by My Side

Released: 2002

Sinergy was one band that always seemed to know what metal was about and with a wealth of experience in groups from all over the Nordic states behind them they also knew how to do it. With Suicide by My Side, they really applied themselves and just lay to with a blistering assault of catchy, neck-snappin’ heavy metal. Leaving some of the campier and flouncier elements of their earlier efforts well and truly alone, Sinergy went for the jugular from the very first moment.

This was easily one of the best albums of pure metal of 2002, but has since become almost something of a forgotten classic as the years have rolled by without a follow-up. Suicide by My Side is edgier, heavier, faster and more aggressive than their previous output, and yet still piles on even more and better hooks and killer harmonies and melodies with the kind of incisive twin lead guitar attack some may have thought disappeared a decade before. This was where Alexei Laiho and Roope Latvala first teamed up as an axe team, and the chemistry was so good that Latvala joined Children of Bodom a few months later

Almost everything else was right with this album too, from Kimberly Goss’ amazing vocals delivering menace and melody in the one pint-sized package to the classic metal riffing and solid drum work like the Bay Area meeting the NWOBHM head-on and demolishing everything. ‘I Spit on Your Grave’ and ‘The Sin Trade’ open the piece with a flurry of blows that just keep coming and the awesome ‘Passage to the Fourth World’ is like a homage to the glory days gone by.

With all ten songs raging by in just on 38 minutes, you can flip it right back to the start and get nailed all over again in less time than it takes to listen to the second half of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and it's far more enjoyable too. Sinergy pretty much stalled after this when Laiho and Goss called it splitsville, but even if this had been the only album they did it would have been worth it.

1. I Spit on Your Grave
2. The Sin Trade
3. Violated
4. Me, Myself, My Enemy
5. Written in Stone
6. Nowhere for No One
7. Passage to the Fourth World
8. Shadow Island
9. Suicide by My Side
10. Remembrance

Rating: 86%

OPETH: Watershed

Produced by Mikael Åkerfeldt

Released: 2008

Opeth is one band who can do no wrong in my book. While there are those who yearn for the days of Blackwater Park or Still Life and still others who long for another Orchid, to me Opeth is one group that actually defines progressive, and that sort of rules out moving backwards. So while some can moan and complain, I'm quite happy to let Opeth get on with getting on.

Watershed appears in the aftermath of two key members of the band moving on, but like any group greater than the sum of its parts this hasn't seemed to have had much of an impact. Of course the chief component is Mikael Åkerfeldt, and he is still firmly in place, switching his vocal style with breathtaking skill and consumate ease as always.

The album opens with the acoustic, melancholia-drenched "Coil", probably to the consternation of many who would immediately think another Damnation was in store. In some ways that is correct, because Watershed continues the experimentation with 70s prog-rock that album explored but blends it with the classic Opeth sound. The end result is a mixture of blues-flavoured guitar licks, jazz rhythms, big pompous organs and bursts of crushing death metal interwoven with orchestral flourishes and acoustic interludes. The arrangements are also some of their most expansive ever. From "Coil", "Heir Apparent" builds into the heaviest and fastest track Opeth has created in some time, but it is also a dynamic one, slowly revealing its many facets from almost pure minimalism to thundering, hammering metal over the course of almost nine minutes. Later on, the grand and truly awesome "Hessian Peel" also bears the influence of the band's much heavier past while the sprawling "Hex Omega" is Opeth at their moodiest.

There are rare occasions where things sound a little more forced than we are used to hearing from Opeth, and this could be the legacy of Martin Lopez and Peter Lindgren's departures. These moment are fleeting however and really do little to detract from the overall vision which is, once again, epic and majestic and Watershed again shows that Opeth is one of metal's most important and interesting acts.

1. Coil
2. Heir Apparent
3. The Lotus Eater
4. Burden
5. Porcelain Heart
6. Hessian Peel
7. Hex Omega

Rating: 88%