Jonathan Hill

A Soapbox for Uninformed Opinions

Mar
28

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Lost Horizon A Flame to the Ground Beneath Review

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Lost Horizon A Flame to the Ground Beneath Review

Artist: Lost Horizon
Album: A Flame to the Ground Beneath
Genre(s): Heavy Metal
Subgenres(s): Power Metal, Progressive Metal
Released: 2003
Length: 53 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Music for Nations

Track List:

01. Transdimensional Revelation
02. Pure
03. Lost in the Depths of Me
04. Again Will the Fire Burn
05. The Song of Earth
06. Cry of a Restless Soul
07. Think Not Forever
08. Highlander (The One)
09. Deliverance

Lost Horizon A Flame to the Ground Beneath Cover

A Flame to the Ground Beneath is the second and final album by Swedish metal outfit Lost Horizon. It is a direct continuation of the distinctively uplifting power metal/progressive metal sound that they developed on their first album, Awaken the World.

The songs are longer than before and in keeping with the tradition of progressive music, they contain many verses that can flow easily from one to the next without necessarily having the need for a chorus. The saving grace Lost Horizon balances this out with is never getting wrapped up in taking their songs in a thousand and one directions while maintaining their triumphant sound and positive message about self-empowerment and free will over fate in their lyrics.

Sadly, Lost Horizon still insists on including their ambient interludes which fail to leave a lasting impression. The introduction song, Transdimensional Revelation, is slow on the uptake and doesn’t give any indication as to what A Flame to the Ground Beneath is all about. However it does serve as an excellent buffer to the first metal song, Pure, and gives it a bigger impact when it kicks in seemingly out of nowhere (although it should be noted that like the other songs, it can speak for itself). The odd coupling of ambient interludes and heavy metal is by no means a bad concept but the execution is definitely in need of refinement.

Both the bass and keyboard playing can be heard clearly enough but the bass still finds itself competing with the guitars and drums like it does in many other metal bands. The keyboard tends to find itself in a supporting role but has a few moments to bolster some songs such as Lost in the Depths of Me and Again the Fire Will Burn. It is also the only instrument on the mid-album interlude The Song of Earth, which pleasantly enough turns out to be a full song rather than misguided soundscaping.

Much like Awaken the World, A Flame to the Ground Beneath is sung entirely in English and not being the bands native language, there are some mishaps with the lyrics that don’t flow exactly as they should do. On most occasions Daniel Heiman’s vocal range alone will distract you from this and more than makes up for it.

One of the major highlights of A Flame to the Ground Beneath is Highlander (The One), a 12 minute epic that features some of Daniel Heiman’s most extravagant moments and with all the wailing he does, it would make you think that the entire song was written for him to push his voice to the limit. The last minute of the song is by far one of the best metal moments committed to a recording. Unfortunately A Flame to the Ground Beneath ends with the interlude Deliverance. This deals a significant blow to the flow of the album as it should have ended on Highlander (The One) to give you the massive triumphant feeling that Lost Horizon is all about.

The songs (that go from 6 to 12 minutes) might sound daunting on first impressions but Lost Horizon have the musical chops to back up their ambitious goals and present another significant entry into the power metal/progressive metal catalogue with A Flame to the Ground Beneath.

Dec
15

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Slayer Reign in Blood Review

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Slayer Reign in Blood Review

Artist: Slayer
Album: Reign in Blood
Genre(s): Heavy Metal
Subgenres(s): Thrash Metal
Released: 1986
Length: 29 minutes (35 with bonus tracks)
Language(s): English
Label(s): Def Jam Recordings

Track List:

01. Angel of Death
02. Piece by Piece
03. Necrophobic
04. Altar of Sacrifice
05. Jesus Saves
06. Criminally Insane
07. Reborn
08. Epidemic
09. Portmortem
10. Raining Blood
11. Aggressive Perfector (Bonus Track)
12. Criminally Insane (Remix) (Bonus Track)

Slayer Reign in Blood Cover

Reign in Blood is the third album by thrash metal titans Slayer. Released in 1986, the recording is exceptionally clear for a time when figuring out how to record metal albums was coming out of its infancy. For comparison in sound quality you only need to look back to their 1985 album Hell Awaits to hear the difference. Acclaimed producer Rick Rubin is often cited for this and it contributed much to the success of Reign in Blood and its iconic status that it has attained over the subsequent decades.

Slayer obviously took their punk rock influences to heart and upped the ante for thrash metal by pushing the subgenre to its limits and did so with categorical success. The original release of Reign in Blood is incredibly short. It is a relentless 29 minutes that showcases an odd disparity between Slayer’s savage song writing abilities and the sloppy guitar solos that get jammed in thoughtlessly and appear to be more of an afterthought than an integral part of any of their songs. Thankfully Dave Lombardo will distract you from this with his masterful drum work that parades throughout Reign in Blood and he never misses a chance to impress.

Tom Araya’s vocal performance goes all the way from barely comprehendible splutters, snarls and high pitched screams to relatively even singing with a gruff slant to it. The lyrics were written by the guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King and deal with horror, gore and violence while touching on Satanism and death. While shocking for the time, these topics have since become standard fare for many thrash and death metal bands past and present.

Reign in Blood is a single-minded barrage of aggro in short, snappy bursts that doesn’t leave any room to flex their artistic muscles in other sonic realms. Slayer used their unquenchable thirst to create volatile music and spurred them on to record an album that ultimately became not only a flag bearer for thrash metal but a forerunner of death metal as well.

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Dec
8

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Solitude Aeturnus Adagio Review

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Solitude Aeturnus Adagio Review

Artist: Solitude Aeturnus
Album: Adagio
Genre(s): Heavy Metal
Subgenres(s): Doom Metal
Released: 1998
Length: 63 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Massacre Records

Track List:

01. My Endtime
02. Days of Prayer
03. Believe
04. Never
05. Idis
06. Personal God
07. Mental Pictures
08. Insanity’s Circles
09. The Fall
10. Lament
11. Empty Faith
12. Spiral Descent
13. Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath Cover)

Solitude Aeturnus Adagio Cover

Adagio is the 5th album by American doom metal outfit Solitude Aeturnus. It stands firmly on the lighter side of the doom metal spectrum with tempos going from moderately paced (for a metal band) to the slower paces more commonly identified with the doom metal sound.

Adagio starts out with the moody dark ambient introduction of My Endtime before Days of Prayer comes into get the album moving. It sounds promising enough but the 2 follow up songs, Believe and Never, are cut from the same cloth and fail to move Adagio forward. This is the major pitfall that the band faces and it becomes evident that Solitude Aeturnus don’t know which direction to take their songs despite having some good verses littered throughout the album.

Solitude Aeturnus kick it up a notch for Idis and Empty Faith with more tempo shifts, a mix of clean and distorted guitar tones and singer Rob Lowe (whose voice suits this brand of doom and gloom particularly well) alternates between almost whispered lines and his powerful singing voice. The Fall gives some relief from the rehashed song structure by being a short and straightforward acoustic song before they quickly revert back to doom metal with the appropriately titled Lament.

A cover of Heaven and Hell by Black Sabbath is used as the closer for Adagio. This forces them to adjust their approach and sees them steering away from familiar territory to bring much needed change to the album that lets it finish on a high note.

Nov
26

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Candlemass Candlemass Review

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Candlemass Candlemass Review

Artist: Candlemass
Album: Candlemass
Genre(s): Heavy Metal
Subgenres(s): Heavy Metal, Doom Metal
Released: 2005
Length: 55 minutes (58 minutes with bonus material)
Language(s): English
Label(s): Nuclear Blast

Track List:

01. Black Dwarf
02. Seven Silver Keys
03. Assassin of the Light
04. Copernicus
05. The Man Who Fell from the Sky
06. Witches
07. Born in a Tank
08. Spellbreaker
09. The Day and the Night
10. Mars and Volcanoes (Bonus Track)

Candlemass Candlemass Cover

Swedish doom metallers Candlemass return to form with their self-titled opus after 6 years and a brief hiatus. Candlemass also marks the return of singer Messiah Marcolin, who hasn’t recorded with the band since 1989s Tales of Creation and his voice remains as powerful as it was 16 years ago.

The lyrics tend to deal with fantasy and mythological subjects without the flamboyance that normally accompany heavy metal bands. Many of the verses are vivid in their description of scenes that you could half expect to be part of a book rather than a song. At times the lyrics can be quite gothic in nature and this helps to keep the band in line with the doom metal ethos that they helped create.

Candlemass does however breathe new life into their sound with founding member, bassist and sole songwriter Leif Edling expanding on the plodding doom metal framework that they pioneered in the 1980s. He achieves this by incorporating influences from traditional heavy metal that can be heard prominently on Black Dwarf, Witches, Born in a Tank and Mars and Volcanoes.

The song lengths are just as varied and go from a little over 3 minutes (The Man Who Fell from The Sky) up to 9 minutes (The Day and the Night). This gives the band plenty of room to play through extended passages without adhering to a typical verse/chorus format but at the same time the songs remain highly structured and never veer off without purpose.

Black Dwarf is uncharacteristic of the bands typical sound as it is incredibly up-tempo with a repetitive and infectious guitar hook that will immediately draw you into the album. The Man Who Fell from the Sky is one of the few instrumental songs Candlemass have done in their long career and while it follows a similar formula to Black Dwarf, it doesn’t have the same payoff when you expect Messiah Marcolin to burst out wailing but instead it simply continues to play on until it quickly fades to silence.

The rest of Candlemass is rounded off with songs that lean heavily in favour of their doom metal niche. Ominous songs like Seven Silver Keys, Assassin of the Light and Spellbreaker show off their modernised doom metal sound exceptionally well. Copernicus almost comes to a complete stand still after a thundering introduction and along with Spellbreaker, it is one of the few songs to feature guitar solos in their lengthy compositions.

It is not an overstatement to say that the self-titled effort from the Swedish doom metal pioneers is a triumphant return to form that will please old and new fans alike.

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