Getcha Rocks Off

IVORY MOON - HUMAN NATURE (Symphonic Power Metal)


Sweden-based Ulterium Records may be new to the game, but with just four albums under their belt—all released in 2007—they've already established themselves as being a label with an ear for great music. First came Incrave's The Escape (initially released as a self-titled album under the name Evergrace), a melodic metal gem; then came Carved In Stone by Grand Lux, another great melodic metal album. A progressive metal monster followed in the name of Calling The Earth To Witness by Darkwater, and then Italy's Ivory Moon rounded out a great year with Human Nature, an excellent symphonic power metal opus.

Human Nature is Ivory Moon's second full-length, after a three-track demo. The point of reference here is nothing new, but it's less about originality and more about good songwriting, and this album is full of great songs. "Crimson Horizon" starts with piano, orchestration, and some great operatic vocals by female vocalist Cecilia Serra before switching to the signature symphonic power metal style the album is based on. Male vocalist Sandro Manicone steps in as well, adding a new dimension to the vocal department. There are no grunts here; Sandro sings. The band follows this same pattern on other tracks, like "Wasted," "Through Different Eyes," and "Overflow." But they channel a little progressive metal on "Reign Of Time" and "Clown In The Mirror." Two symphonic ballads come in the form of "In The Deep Forest" and "The Second King." The album closer, "The Journey," lives up to its name, painting some slight Middle Eastern sounds on a huge symphonic metal canvas, mixing into one song everything presented individually throughout the rest of the album. A great way to end the album (though I dislike how it so quickly fades out at the end).

Ivory Moon may not convert non-believers, but fans of power metal that includes symphonic elements (ex: Rhapsody, before they were on fire) should find something very enjoyable with Human Nature. Score another one for Ulterium Records.

Rating: 80/100
Website: http://www.ivorymoon.it
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ivorymoonofficial
Downloads: N/A

More to come (I have about twenty reviews 95% complete)...

My reviews are getting pretty bad. I think I need to finish this current lot I have here and retire for a bit. I don't need to be writing crap reviews. Anyway, here the latest one I was able to whip up into a semi-readable form.

BLACKMORE'S NIGHT - PARIS MOON (Renaissance-inspired Folk Rock)


For rock and metal fans, the name Richie Blackmore should stir some good memories. For those that may not know, Blackmore was a founding member of Deep Purple and Rainbow. With such a storied history playing in two of the most legendary rock bands, some fans may have been taken by surprise when in the nineties Blackmore released Shadow of the Moon, a renaissance revival kind of album that featured his longtime partner Candice Night on vocals. While the instruments used to make that album weren't entirely traditional to the era it represented, it still wasn't what one would call a rock album, either—though rock elements do exist. Some would call it folk rock. But folk rock is simply "heavy" folk—which is not rock music at all. So fans of Blackmore's past musical output seem divided over his jaunt back in time with Blackmore's Night.

To date, Blackmore's Night have put out six studio albums (one being a Christmas album of originals and standards), a "romantic" collection, a live album, and a DVD. For their ten year anniversary, fans were treated to Paris Moon, which puts another nick in the live CD and DVD categories. Paris Moon is a DVD/CD release; each disc featuring a live performance filmed and recorded at the Olympia in Paris. The DVD has nineteen songs (plus one introduction track) while the CD side has only eleven—nine from the Olympia performance and two studio tracks.

Paris Moon was my first encounter with the band (I've since picked up nearly all the studio albums). Previous to hearing it I was as skeptical as anyone, as much from listening to Blackmore fans whine that he's bending to the will of his hot girlfriend (plausible, I must say) and because of the simple fact that—rock legend or not—going renaissance seemed to be a bit lunatic. But after watching Paris Moon, I'm convinced. Blackmore's Night is much more than I ever expected, and far more than those aforementioned whiners think.

Candice Night does a fantastic job fronting this band. Her voice is sweet and commanding. She does a great job speaking to the crowd, explaining things like what certain songs are about, the writing process, or where the lyrical inspiration comes from. Blackmore himself takes the backseat for most of the show, but does show off his chops from time to time, like on "Ariel," one of the most rock-like songs the band has done. The rest of the band members get to show off from time to time, as well ("Durch Den Wald Zum Bauchus"). Aside from Night classics like "Fires At Midnight," "The Village Lanterne," and "Under A Violet Moon," they pull out some classic rock covers (with a thematic twist) such as "Rainbow Blues" (Jethro Tull), "Diamonds And Rust" (Joan Baez), "Soldier Of Fortune" (Deep Purple), and a very interesting take on "Saint Teresa" (Joan Osborne).

The multi-angle DVD is a pleasure to watch, but the music is so laid back that for me it plays better as a musical background than a visual piece. (Since I have little time to watch television or movies of any sort, this is probably just a very biased opinion based on my personal lifestyle and likely won't be any sort of common opinion.) It's unfortunate that the full DVD isn't represented on two CDs. With that said, the entire package here is outstanding. The two bonus studio tracks on the CD are a radio edit of "All Because Of You" (from Fires At Midnight) and "The Village Lanterne" (from the album of the same name). Both are good additions to the album, but largely pointless when considering that there are only nine live tracks on the CD when there are nineteen on the DVD.

Overall, Paris Moon might be the best way to start with the band. You get a nice smattering of some of the band's most liked songs that span all their albums, some great covers, and a solid, intriguing performance by all. Plus there's a visual companion, if you want to watch it all as it happens. There's also some behind-the-scenes and interview footage. Paris Moon is a winner.

Rating: 75/100
Website: http://www.blackmoresnight.com
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/blackmoresnight1
Downloads: Soldier Of Fortune (Live), Loreley (Live), Village Lantere (Official Video)

INTO THE PIT! INTO THE PIT! INTO THE PIT!

I feel like a dick, I do, but I don't want to do a bad review. It is pretty much done, though. I just have to shine it.

Eyesore wrote:

I feel like a dick, I do, but I don't want to do a bad review. It is pretty much done, though. I just have to shine it.

....well you know what they say...walks like a duck....that kinda thing

T-Roy wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

I feel like a dick, I do, but I don't want to do a bad review. It is pretty much done, though. I just have to shine it.

....well you know what they say...walks like a duck....that kinda thing

I've gotten a bit out of touch with reviewing albums lately. Tartarean Desire—where I review—kind of sucks the fun out of it all, so it's affected my writing. However, I have managed one "new" review—it was written months ago, but had to mostly be rewritten recently due to the website "losing" the review and me not saving it properly—but I have been adding music-related stuff to my blog. So that's hopefully getting me back into the reviewer's mindset.

Anyway, here is my most recent review:

BY BLOOD ALONE - SEAS OF BLOOD (Gothic Rock/Metal)


As a reviewer—and an all-around obsessive music fan—I welcome unknown bands into my life with more fervent passion than new releases from bands I know and like. So it was with great pleasure that a few years ago I was fortunate enough to be asked to review Eternally by an unknown—to my ears—band called By Blood Alone. The EP was a great little piece of (what I consider to be) true gothic metal. In that first review I ranted a bit about the misconception of what today’s everyday music fan considers to be "gothic." To put it simply, without repeating myself here: I disagree with most labels. I will, however, set this review up by quoting myself from that previous review:

"Like the legendary Bauhaus (arguably the most famous gothic rock band ever) stylistically mixed it up in the 80s, By Blood Alone have combined many different elements from rock, metal, doom, gothic romanticism and even a little pop, and created a tapestry that is undeniably gothic in style, but also much more if you can listen beyond the free-form, minimalist nature of the songs."

I’ve read a few reviews that suggest there is some prog-rock on this album, but I would disagree with that. On Seas Of Blood, not a lot has changed since Eternally, in terms of style. By Blood Alone still mixes it up pretty well, but they keep that musical sea a bit calmer than the term progressive—or the album cover—depicts. The album does, however, boast some very interesting and style-shifting pieces. But overall, Seas Of Blood seems to show a band that has kicked up the metal and symphonic elements a few notches. This is immediately evident on the opening track "Serpentarius," which starts like a lost 80s metal classic; it then shifts into a keyboard-heavy masterpiece with some excellent stylistic twists and turns which keeps its seven-plus minute length seem much shorter. "Wants Me Dead" (re-recorded from their 2004 demo) continues to carry the proverbial metal torch, its fire fed by John Graveside’s galloping "fist in the air" breaks. However the song’s heaviness seems to come not from the guitar but from the chilling keyboard work of Jenny Williamson, as if it were a mystical shroud that hangs heavy like a funeral pall. "Lovely Lies" and "Nidhogg" embrace a similar style, slowly exuding a sense of dread and foreboding like sweat from pores.

With four of the album’s eight tracks walking a relatively similar path, it could have been very easy for the band to get bogged down in a well-traveled rut. Fortunately By Blood Alone understand balance. The creepy "Undead Friend" plays like a burial waltz for the recently departed—if it were the 1800s. And the twisted and quirky "Little Lady Lillit"—with Cruella doing her sadistic best at sounding cute and downright devious—reminds me of Emilie Autumn’s post-Enchant foray into the self-dubbed Victoriandustrial style. A new recording of "Deny Yourself—which was on the Eternally EP—is the album’s heaviest track, relying more on the crunch of guitar and double-bass than the atmospheric veil of keyboards, though that is still present. The epic—and arguably best—of the album is "Seas Of Blood," a graceful and expansive track that evokes a sort of sad beauty. The music rises and falls with the slow intensity of an ocean swell, with Cruella’s voice lightly but passionately rocking on its surface.

By Blood Alone isn’t a flawless band. Part of me wishes the guitars had a fatter tone, and others have mentioned that Cruella’s vocals aren’t as strong as some others. While those might be valid complaints for most bands, I think it actually adds to the character of the band’s music. There’s something real and warm in its imperfections. And there’s nothing bad about this band, especially when it comes to the songs. A band like Linkin Park might have the luxury of spending two years doing pre-production, two more years of studio recordings and even more overdubs, for what ends up a thirty-minute album with not a note out of place; but it loses the human element in the process—it lacks the passion and defined character of something real. While not flawless, By Blood Alone is a band that is nearly so, in spite—or possibly because—of its flaws. Seas Of Blood is an outstanding album.

It’s also worth noting that the album artwork is simply beautiful. The painting, A Mediterranean Brigantine Drifting Onto a Rocky Coast in a Storm, is a piece by Willem van de Velde, the younger, a Dutch painter of sea-pieces. The painting has obviously been slightly altered with added design elements, but the intensity of the image remains.

Rating: 90/100
Website: http://www.bybloodalone.com
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/bybloodalone
Downloads: Wants Be Dead (Clip), Undead Friend (Clip), Deny Yourself (Clip), Little Lady Lillit (Clip)

I update the bloggalogga with some mini-reviews for Onward and Angra.

Hopefully I can soon get beyond this writer's block when it comes to reviewing.

I have been there....I have a pile of shite here to be reviewed...and most of it doesnt even move me enough to say "blagggghhhh!!!"

Ha! Good stuff!

Angra's awesome, you suck!

Onward is awesome, you're cool!

I love women with lean, vascular arms! You suck! (those are some ropes on A.J.)

Carrot Top is scary-weird, so you're cool again!

Good to see someone reading that drivel! Haha.

Shiney wrote:

I have been there....I have a pile of shite here to be reviewed...and most of it doesnt even move me enough to say "blagggghhhh!!!"

It's tough sometimes. I've been "almost done" with an Ultimatum review for like 6 months now. I'm so lame. Haha.

I think I might be done with Tartarean Desire. I just can't be bothered to spend my time reviewing screamo BS that comes in cardboard sleeves. Haha.

I blame society

http://www.getcharocksoff.com

I'm slowly adding all my old reviews. I saw another forum, as well as Metal Excess, and figured a blog could work for my stuff. So I'm slowly adding everything. I just added an old interview I did with a killer band, one you should all check out.

Changed the name of the thread, too.