Jonathan Hill

A Soapbox for Uninformed Opinions

Dec
19

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The Darkness Christmas Time Don’t Let the Bells End Review

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The Darkness Christmas Time Don’t Let the Bells End Review

Artist: The Darkness
Album: Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)
Genre(s): Rock
Subgenres(s): Hard Rock
Released: 2003
Length: 7 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Atlantic, Must Destroy

Track List:

01. Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)
02. I Love You 5 Times

Darkness Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) Cover

Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End) is a festive EP by The Darkness in 2003 as a bid to grab the Christmas number 1 spot in the UK but landed second after losing out to the joyless Mad World by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews. The single was then featured as a bonus track on the rerelease of their debut album Permission to Land.

Both songs are rife with the same cheeky humour found on their debut album and since there are only 2 short songs on this EP, The Darkness manages make it more obvious than ever on Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End) by letting the double entendres loose to sing about “bells end” “ringing in peace” during the festive season. The song also features a children’s choir and ends with bells and chimes to give it that authentic Christmas feeling while referencing the title in a musical context this time.

Justin Hawkins maintains his falsetto range and somehow restrains himself from his own flamboyant wailing only to let loose in a desperate plea to grab some attention from the choir when his own voice is buried by them on Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End).

I Love You 5 Times is a power ballad that is highlighted by its ridiculous lyrics in which Justin Hawkins confesses that “I watch as you spend an hour or two in the bath like a tuna” and “twice a week I take a peek as you bathe like a reptile”. If this wasn’t enough for you he purrs, moans along to the choppy guitar solo and ends the song with a kiss. The lyrics pull the ballad together and wouldn’t be the same without them whereas Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End) is thoroughly enjoyable even if you are completely oblivious to the humour.

The Darkness put a brilliant, cheeky twist on Christmas cheer by bringing a duo of genuinely jovial songs to the table instead of rehashing tired Christmas classics like countless others have done before.

Oct
31

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Stolen Babies There Be Squabbles Ahead Review

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Stolen Babies There Be Squabbles Ahead Review

Artist: Stolen Babies
Album: There Be Squabbles Ahead
Genre(s): Rock
Subgenres(s): Experimental Rock
Released: 2006
Length: 49 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): The End Records, No Comment Records

Track List:

01. Spill!
02. Awful Fall
03. Filistata
04. A Year of Judges
05. So Close
06. Tablescrap
07. Swint? Or Slude?
08. Mind Your Eyes
09. Lifeless
10. Tall Tales
11. Push Button
12. Gathering Fingers
13. The Button Has Been Pushed

Stolen Babies There Be Squabbles Ahead Cover

There Be Squabbles Ahead is the debut album of the genre bending Stolen Babies. The quartet manages to pair their unusual take on rock music with twisted circus-like sounds that move in many bizarre directions while featuring an alarming number of instruments. The more common ones being the accordion, organ and piano in addition to the standard bass, drum and guitar set up. Stolen Babies then go as far as using a glockenspiel, jaw harp, mandolin, sitar, marimba, tuba, trumpet, euphonium and a violin in a low-key capacity.

The bulk of the singing duties are handled by Dominique Lenore Persi, whose abilities are as flexible as the music is. She goes from explosive rage (Spill, A Year of Judges and Tall Tales) through to singing (Lifeless), semi-spoken lines (Push Button) and a smattering of hissed whispers are thrown in the mix for good measures (So Close) but most songs have a combination of two or more styles in them.

It’s hard to tell what you should expect on first hearing There Be Squabbles Ahead when Stolen Babies kicks it off with the volatile Spill before going onto the comparatively relaxed and bass driven Awful Fall. Filistata is the first song to feature the oddball circus music and from then on you will be subjected to any combination of this (much like the vocal performances).

Stolen Babies break further away from their wayward format to feature dance-like rhythms with a heavy keyboard focus on So Close, the tragic Lifeless provides a much needed break from its antithesis Mind Your Eyes and The Button Has Been Pushed is abstract and sounds as though it belongs on a credit reel to a film from a far off land that only exists in the mind of the Stolen Babies band members.

Most bands that purposefully try to stand so far apart from any of their contemporaries while using so many instruments would easily turn everything into an unfocused pile of auditory vomit. Stolen Babies are one of the rare exceptions. There Be Squabbles Ahead is well structured and thought out, with their collective vision coming through in their music to give the album (and band) a real identity of its own.

Sep
22

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The Gathering The West Pole Review

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The Gathering The West Pole Review

Artist: The Gathering
Album: The West Pole
Genre(s): Rock
Subgenres(s): Post Rock, Trip Rock
Released: 2009
Length: 54 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Psychonaut

Track List:

01. When Trust Becomes Sound
02. Treasure
03. All You Are
04. The West Pole
05. No Bird Call
06. Capital of Nowhere
07. You Promised Me a Symphony
08. Pale Traces
09. No One Spoke
10. A Constant Run

The Gathering The West Pole Cover

The West Pole is the first Gathering album since the departure of singer Anneke Van Giersbergen in 2007. She has since been replaced by Silje Wergeland (Octavia Sperati) and The Gathering deceptively approached The West Pole with the mentality of “new singer, new sound” with the misleading mammoth opener When Trust Becomes Sound.

The song is an unexpected post rock number that continuously builds on itself before a questionable background megaphone ramble comes out of nowhere courtesy of guest singer Anne van den Hoogen. Thankfully the guitar buries the megaphone in a fashion most favourable and lets you enjoy the rest of the sterling craftsmanship that has gone into writing and performing it.

After The Gathering waste time not introducing Silje Wergeland she makes a powerful introduction for herself on the even-tempered Treasure. Her performance should remove any doubt from long time Gathering fans that are sceptical of her being able to replace Anneke Van Giersbergen. She easily proves to be a suitable replacement while there are some noticeable similarities between them.

The overly noisy side of The Gathering is short-lived and the mid-paced songs become the theme before they manage to take it down a few more notches beginning with the quelled No Bird Call up to and including Pale Traces, which throw back to the sombre ambience of their 2006 album Home.

Unlike their previous trip rock albums, the distortion drenched guitar has been integrated into their sound to give them a new edge to work with, just not in the way you would expect from the opener. It has definitely push them forward and kept them from rehashing their existing sound and while it would have been exciting to hear The Gathering take on the post rock genre and weave their unique vision around it, The West Pole ends on a well-deserved high note.

Jul
28

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Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe Review

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Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe Review

Artist: Rob Zombie
Album: Hellbilly Deluxe
Genre(s): Nu Metal
Subgenres(s): N/A
Released: 1998
Length: 38 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Geffen Records

Track List:

01. Call of the Zombie
02. Superbeast
03. Dragula
04. Living Dead Girl
05. Perversion 99
06. Demonoid Phenomenon
07. Spookshow Baby
08. How to Make a Monster
09. Meet the Creeper
10. The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa Whore
11. What Lurks on Channel X?
12. Return of the Phantom Stranger
13. The Beginning of the End

Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe Cover

Hellbilly Deluxe is the first album that Rob Zombie recorded as a solo artist. Released the same year as his heavy metal band White Zombie disbanded, Hellbilly Deluxe serves as a spiritual successor to White Zombie’s final album, Astro Creep: 2000, but in many ways it is something entirely new.

Abandoning the groove metal sound of White Zombies last 2 albums, Rob Zombie gravitated towards nu metal still with an emphasis on strong groove laden songs and samples of horror film dialogue with his own lyrics revolve around the same themes as well as offbeat characters and concepts of his own creation.

Rob Zombie manages to cling onto his distinct gravelly voice while showing a massive improvement in his singing abilities. He sings clearly enough to be heard throughout most songs and no longer sounds like he’s straining himself anymore. At other times he takes to an almost spoken word delivery on Living Dead Girl, The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa Whore, and Return of the Phantom Stranger.

Song-writing has flourished in a lot of new ways while each song is generally shorter and has a more clearly produced sound. After the creepy samples that make up Call of the Zombie he cuts to the heart of Hellbilly Deluxe; adrenaline pumping horror rock anthems tinged with an assortment of odd noises and all the other ingredients you’d expect to hear in a b-list horror film.

The other, more arguably artistic side of Rob Zombie crawls through on the spooky soundscape work of Perversion 99 while How to Make a Monster is a seemingly intentional lo-fi rocker that sounds as though it was recorded in a basement with the microphones in another room. The supernatural monster shenanigans come to a bizarre finish with The Beginning of the End, a noise song that is riddled with several layers of unidentifiable sounds that swirl around uncomfortably.

While some parts of Hellbilly Deluxe are comparable to White Zombies later output, it’s important to remember that Rob Zombie has moved beyond what White Zombie was and has gone onto carve out a far more ambitious and creative solo career with Hellbilly Deluxe.

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