Whoops, me a die hard Galneryus fan kinda missed the info about their last album in 2014, which is strange because I remember checking their site for tour info -_-
^ Their new music video, I won't post link to full album because I'm a sea pirate, not a music pirate god damn it!
And this stuff is quite unique for Galneryus, Sho still can't pronounce english words but it's hard to teach an old dog some new tricks, his vocals are still great with cheesy gayness flowing through entire song. Maybe he fell into a cauldron of unicorn soup when he was a baby? Anyway the track is heavily keyboard oriented and Syu shines only during solos which somehow disappointed the fans.. Yes, the solo doesn't beat Angel of Salvation but remember Future Never Dies? It wasn't better than Destiny either when it comes to solos.
The only problem with this track for me is the part after the solo with tempo change and different vocals. Maybe if I spoke japanese it would fit better. Thankfully their comeback to chorus+outro is pure perfection.
With this track Galneryus really starts to sound more stratovarish than ever. They proved many times that Syu beats any Strato guitarist and it looks like a keyboard challenge this time :D When I have my hands on their album I will check if Yuhki can compare to Jens Master Of All Keyboards.
And as I like to throw something warm in the end I'm very glad that one of my favourite bands and one of the most skilled bands I know continues to surprise me and proves that my judgement was right :)
hey, I don't have to MS Paint this one for my review, thanks Gunsen
"Review I should have made years ago but I'm a lazy fuck" part three.
Pathfinder, again, with Fifth Element, their second studio album released back in 2012.
After gaining their popularity after BTSBTT Pathfinder focused a lot on fanservice, making a special FAQ site for fans, releasing 2 songs from Fifth Element as a preview, studio reports and I even saw an advertisement in public transport in Gdynia, one of my favourite WTF moments in my life.
Back with a new drummer as the washing machine wasn't fast enough they replaced it with a chef devoid of respect to his kitchen set
So, can Pathfinder beat their debut shit with moar epicness and speed or show something unexpected?
The album begins with Ventus Ignis Terra Aqua or as I like to call it- Fart, Burn, Shit and Vodka.
*wild audience applause appears*
Thank You very much everybody!
*exits stage*
ekhem, so a typical album intro song, that introduces us to four elements and announces a fifth one, a fifth element which is? They don't say, second track begins.
Fifth Element.
And here we go with the usuals, orchestrations, speed, kitchen on fire, solos everywhere and lyrics about power metal-ish stuff. But this time something is different, orchestrations are pushed more to the back, vocals are more varied with some screams that remind more extreme metal genres and the lyrics are a little bit easier to hear and have a motive instead of power metal gibberish. The song is a bow towards metal in general as I reviewed earlier. And the whole attitude really fits, extremely fast drums and screams take this song one leg out of power metal territory.
Third song is Ready To Die Between Stars and first 20 seconds show that this is the hit song on this record. From cathy melodies, amazing solos (keyboard solo shines), guest vocals and memorable lyrics the song delivers probably the most extreme drums you can hear from Pathfinder. The band made a music video for this track and even if it's popularity is lesser than Lord of Wolves it stays as my favourite power metal music video of all time (Trollfest are unbeatable masters when it comes to music videos in general). I even got 2 seconds of screentime on the video, though pushed somewhere in the background, out of relevance, covered by youtube ads, forgotten ;_;
I'm so sad, and a little mad I guess my image is too bad I'm so sad, please let me be why Pathfinder doesn't love me?
Ekhem, next song.
The Day When I Turn Back Time. Pathfinder loves choirs on this album I noticed. And extreme drums. Keyboards on this track are spot on, and it looks like another hit song to me. Not a sing-along song as it's very hard to sing but a typical Pathfinder hit song (like Sons of Eternal Fire).
Fifth song of the Fifth Element (dumb smile on my face, I love me) is Chronokinesis. For those who have hard time with difficult words I advice using the name "Homo kisses". Song's intro is epic and deserves a mention. At first I didn't like this song as it has a lot of different tempos and ideas that hardly fit together. It has choirs, parts that would be great to sing along with an audience but overall it's too much at once. The one thing that saves the song are the vocals, Simon delivers one of his best performances there and sounds really into it. Personal stuff aside he's a really good vocalist when he wants.
Next song is a Sabaton fan dream come true, March To The Darkest Horizon. Second long track on the record focuses mostly on choirs and battle/military sounds. It's not really my thing but I always smile like an idiot after "kill them for me" scream.
Anyone else hears a "Marshmallow" instead of "March something"?
Also the first song I heard the word "fucking". Pathfinder can be so edgy sometimes. The more battle part of the song is stopped in the middle and delivers the best orchestrations on the track with female vocals backing it up, then after a short solo it gets back to battle and stuff.
Seventh song is Yin Yang which is a ballad similar to Undiscovered Dreams, with male and female vocals leading the song. And while Dreams were heavily orchestrated here, as with the rest of the album, orchestrations are pushed to the back and the most attention is focused on vocals. Which are the main jewel here, both singers are showing their best, even one small guitar solo is well placed, less forced.
And back to full speed with Elemental Power, the most "pop" song on the record. And the first song on the record I hear bass!
I know I never give bassists enough shine but as I don't know anything about bass what do you want me to say? The bass line is fitting and it's so majestic.
SO MAJESTIC
The song has a lot of growly vocals of Simon and probably have the most power metallish lyrics ever from Pathfinder. Or maybe I think so because I'm able to hear them. And the main treat of this song are solos, there is a lot of them and they are mine personal favourites out of all Pathfinder songs.
Track number nine is Ad Futuram Rei Memoriam. The fuck? The most memorable (or not) thing from this song is the wtf title. Just kidding, I was just happy that there is one thing I can make fun of, the song has the most catchy choir chorus, even though it falls in the BTSBTT territory and I can't understand a single word sung except for "run away". But I give Simon a credit- it's a very fast song to sing. Keys also shine here, pushed to the background but I don't think it's a bad thing. The guitar outro is sick, with a remains of the kitchen being tortured to death.
One of the last songs is When The Sunrise Breaks The Darkness. And I've noticed that this album has a love towards long track names. Anyway, the song's intro is awesome and early vocals deliver the most epic scream Simon puts on the album. As most of the album song focuses strongly on choir vocals. There are some unfitting black metallish vocals there but soon are replaced by choirs in latin (wtf?), bunch of solos and second epic scream.
Bonus song is Spartakus And The Sun Beneath The Sea, about a cartoon different than Ninja Turtles so I don't feel I should review it.
Vita is the outro track bringing back choirs from Fifth Element track and some cool orchestrations
Ekhem, a small apology is in order to everyone who came here to see an assholish review- I would love to let my inner asshole loose on this album review but there is really nothing I can make fun of.
So far Pathfinder fixed everything they did wrong (in my opinion) with BTSBTT and even vocals are clearer and easier to hear with orchestrations pushed to the back. I never thought that an album with the same lyric motive (metal as fifth element) and so many choirs in choruses can be so interesting and, dare I say, diverse.
Vocals are so much better than on the first album, before writing this review and relistening the album I wasn't giving Simon enough credit for it. Keys are also more memorable, on the first album they were mostly heard during solos because of all those orchestrations, now they deliver some simple yet memorable sounds during songs.
I also noticed that songs have better fitting intros, on the first album solos in the beginning souded more forced. Album as a whole is easier to listen to and the song placement is slightly better than on BTSBTT. Songs are less complicated but still varied, even with less tempo changes. I believe that the major reason for these changes are orchestrations being pushed more to the background so a big plus for mixing.
While being essentialy the same Pathfinder's second album delivers shorter, more "hit" songs. While many fans complained that it's less epic than BTSBTT I personally prefer this album, even with songs that I myself don't particulary like there is nothing wrong really, March To The Darkest Horizon is a flawless song that I just don't like, maybe the outro is a little bit too long, maybe.
So here it is, the most asslicking, gay review I ever did. And no one pays me to write this shit ;_;
+ they fixed everything I didn't like and kept the good stuff
+ female vocals still shine
+ while singing about the same thing over and over again it doesn't sound boring
+ more catchy songs than on the first album
+ better than an awesome debut, a rare occurrence
- no ninja turtles
So, if you don't know there's a 15 years old (soon 16) female guitarist from France that about 100,000 people want to marry right now because she covers popular songs like Dragonforce and Yngwie Malmsteen.
So, yet another example of "if you have boobs-you rule", even when those boobs are small and not really interesting. Tina S is a cover guitarist, she has been popular for some time now but you don't see her releasing any solo stuff. That's why I don't consider her a good musician (a good guitarist yes).
One thing I saw about her disturbs me. On her channel she has videos from 2008. When she was 7-8. And am I supposed to believe she did this on herself? It looks to me that there's a parent behind all this. She doesn't smile on her videos, and always look somewhere far away.
(mind that it's my own opinion)
There is no passion visible from her playing. That what bothers me, I kinda feel bad for her. Looks like she was forced and pushed by her parents to learn to play guitar and become "famous", and I really hope I'm wrong this time.
Oh, and her fans are the worst people ever but you would expect that by now. I imagine a group of sad and fat guys 10-20 years older than her jerking off to a youtube video.
But I can dream, can't I?
Ok, like 4 blogs ago I wrote that I do take requests- if You want me to write about something then I will. And today we have our first request.
Gunsen's "Let's Shred Metalhead!" track review.
First thing I need to say is that I am the worst person to write instrumental track reviews. This is the only reason I didn't write a review like that for Aephanamenrmenrr/Nif Riffs. I don't play guitar, I don't know techniques and as you all have already noticed I have no idea how songs are built in general.
So let's write a review and fuck this shit.
The song (video version) begins with some text on screen, very familiar to me, maybe because I did the translation. It's not the best but the original text wasn't very good either. Also it's not 100% fitting to the song (part about meaningful lyrics) because back then I had no idea where this text will end.
After a while we see our happy protein-pumped guitar exhibitionist Gunsen. With so much cloth accessories that I'm amazed there are no Coca Cola banners on him (says the guy wearing 24 patches on his jacket, way to go me ).
His music starts slow reminding me intros to some old 80-s movies, but after a while starts a typical power metal riff which is quite catchy and some "meaningful lyrics".
Let's shred metalhead and fuck the pop shit. Repeated a few times.
No other lyrics so it's an instrumental song. Some tempo changes appear later and the song is overall like a long guitar solo. After 3:30 starts an outro which is in my taste misplaced and unnecessary, there was no real build-up to this point.
To me this song looks like a typical guitar song used to present some new cool guitars many guitarists do for money, my knowledge of instrumental, guitar oriented songs is very poor, I remember listening to Elias Viljanen solo stuff and of course Aepthmamnemr/Nif Riffs. And sadly I prefer these over this stuff, most of this song sounds "inconsistent" to me, so much sound is packed in this song that itself it doesn't know what it wants to be. The main riff (or sweep, dunno) is cool and catchy, after 2 minutes the song changes (so it's an A+B song) but then after the end of the B part we have an outro with some orchestrations. Why?
Still, editing of the video is very well done with many views on the guitar and her wielder, his guitar skills are impressive but as with Dragonforce- skills are not everything. Therefore I give solid 8/10 with a small + for really catchy riff/sweep/whatever it is , maybe I will make it my ringtone.
"Review I should have made years ago but I'm a lazy fuck" part two, at least once a series I start has more than one post :)
This time we have a band, or more of a supergroup those times- Pathfinder. A very bad name for a band, considering there are popular cars and movies called like tha-oh what am I complaining about, first review was Titanium, which is even more fucked when it comes to google search. That's why my band is called Satan's Chopped Tomatoes in Polish and one day we will be big, mark my words. Ekhem. So, the band plays Power Metal, and it's quite hard to start a power metal band, there are so many generic bands that all sound like Rhapsody or something else, comparision is extremely hard to miss. Titanium was lucky enough because they sing about Ninja Turtles and shit, but here? What makes Pathfinder unique? Let's find out.
The album starts slow with Deep Into The Darkness Peering. Yes, Peering, not peeing, it's a tricky word, I know. Intro is epic, pumped with orchestrations, some more oriental, some sounding like a witcher game soundtrack but we've seen it all before, the second track is where the fun starts.
The Whisper Of Ancient Rocks. Well, sounds like someone listened to Sonata Arctica's Picturing The Past too much. And Dragonforce. And replaced the drummer with washing machine. On vocals we have something new, a vocalist with his balls intact, still it's impossible to hear the lyrics because of his poor english but we hear some screams, passion and words like "power", "glory" , "moon", "demons", "abyss" so all generic power metal crap we need. Overall this track is everything Pathfinder is about: high speed power metal made in 75% of guitar and keyboard solos, washing machine having some kind of mid-life crisis and non specified epic lyrics sung in typical power metal fashion. Bass? Well fuck me if I heard any, as always. Maybe I didn't focus enough on solos- we have 2 guitarists that just love to show off how well their guitar skills compensate for their dick sizes, we have a solo on the intro, outro and a few in between. Keys are much more subtle in that manner.
I know I spent a lot of time on that one song but it pretty much sums the rest so let's cover the rest faster, shall we?
Vita Reducta: Through The Portal, another intro song, this time slow piano suddenly turns into some kind of suspense horror sounds with a guy having an orgasm while droping his sword. Interesting.
Anyway, intro doesn't have much to do with the next song, Pathway To The Moon, which is similar to the second track, maybe the lyrics are a little bit more understandable here. If not for ochestrations that are louder than vocals, oh well, it's epic so we don't have to hear the lyrics. This time we step more into symphonic territory with female vocals but relief comes soon with many solos, as always. Short bass solo tells me a bassist is somewhere there, good, good boy, have a cookie.
All The Mornings Of The World starts as usual, with 50 seconds solo but is a little bit different, a strange mix between sad lyrics and typical power metal "happy solos". This song reminds me greatly of Wintersun's Death And The Healing, both are a little bit sad and both have very few vocals compared to instrumental parts, only Wintersun knows where to stop with solos, Pathfinder can't. "Look at me ma, I can play this solo with my feet!". But that's what defines this band so I ain't complaining.
The Demon Awakens, where this time the vocalist has a midlife crisis and is talking with his demon half, better leave him like this, same pattern as always- some vocals, solos, orchestrations, solos, vocals, female vocals, solos. Clothes inside that washing machine must be liquid at this point.
Undiscovered Dreams, finally a slower song. So, let's not scare our listeners with so much change and start with another guitar solo. Finally a song where female vocals have more spotlight. The whole song is a typical duet diabetus-sweet ballad but with amazingly epic (and quite expected at this point) chorus. I believe this song alone can say that the band is serious about making a record in the history of power metal.
The Lord Of Wolves, probably their most popular song due to their music video where you can see all kind of not explained epicness, knights, sorcery, ninja turtles, wolves, tits, armies and whatnot. We have another cool bass solo and the rest of the song is pretty much solos with unclear vocals abou-oh you know it by now, next song.
A midtempo song Sons Of Immortal Fire. There is nothing interesting or funny I can say at this point of the review. I can only say that their video "10 rules of Power Metal" screwed this song for me as they twisted the chorus of this song in video intro and I can't stop smiling like an idiot everytime I hear it. Anyway a very good, hit track, reminding me greatly of Sonata Arctica's My Land when it comes to catchyness and emotions.
Uhh, last 5 songs on the album but I don't think I can do it anymore.. I'm oversoloed and overepicked.. Stardust, one of 2 longer tracks on this record and one of the most epic ones. I think the word "epic" is overused in this review and has close to no meaning but who cares. The outro is 2 minutes and 30 seconds but as the track is somewhat a climax of this album it's completely justified.
Dance Of Flames, best song on the album. Because it's a minute long. Instrumental, funny song. Like watching an Adventure Time cartoon after having a wild sex, brings good memories and associations.
To The Island Of Immortal Fire, this title could be more power metal only by calling it "Magic Rainbow of Immortal Dragon's Fire". I hope the band will use my title in their next album. Also try to squeeze an unicorn there, I failed. The song? Oh, a midtempo, epic but not as good as Sons Of Winter And Sta-ekhem, Sons Of Immortal Fire. During solos we have some tempo changes.
And there it is, over 10 minutes of Pathfinder essence, the title track Beyond The Space, Beyond The Time. The one thing here that's beyond the space and time is their chain of thought: "hey guys, after over 38 minutes of fast power metal on this album I know what we need to sum it up! Over 10 minute song with power metal solos and gibberish, but this time with guest vocals!". Well, anything you've ever wanted (or not) out of power metal is here. Well, ok, one thing is missing, but I will reveal it in the end of this shitty review.
Last track is instrumental outro What If... and at this point I don't care anymore, review is over, hurray!
Allright, some last thoughts: with this debut album Pathfinder was really trying to make an impact in the power metal world, and they succeeded. The sound is fresh, actually hard to describe as the band took the best elements out of power metal bands and took it to extreme levels. And when it comes to that they greatly remind me of japanese bands, japanese are known of getting something that works and making it better with their skills. And skills are shown in Pathfinder, drums and guitars are extreme^2, orchestrations and everything that could make this music more epic and groundshaking is present, only vocals are kind of weaker compared to the rest. But they deliver enough to make this band memorable and unique. And the thing missing in their songs is.. gayness. For Power Metal it's not really that gay, especially compared to Titanium debut album. But I'm sure that some extremely gay stuff happens behind the scenes..
+ too many solos (TOO MANY COOKS, TOO MANY COOKS!)
+ speeeeeeeeeeed
+ legendary epicness of vulcanic doom tragedy.
++ female vocals get 2 pluses
+ orchestrations and instrumental stuff
+ next to fudge and mead they are the best export product Poland has to offer
- sometimes orchestrations are louder than vocals
- can be exhausting on first listen
Total score: 104%, kinda explains why it's one of my favourite bands.
And here as a bonus is the video I was talking about earlier
Ok, sadly the list is small and I've made a terrible decision to put only one song (and it's solo/solos) from one band. This is simply because with bands like Galneryus, Dio and Stratovarius the original list had 109 positions so I picked only the best of the best, top fucking ten of those. And important note - everything counts. Timing, set up, beginning, end. This is why some extremely hard solos didn't make it to the list, they simply didn't fit. 10. Tarot - Love's Not Made for My Kind
Very, very hard choice, not only within this band (Wings of Darkness and Tides have some extraordinary solos) but outside as well. I will mention runner-ups in the end.
This on the other hand was obvious. Charon has a lot of short and amazing solos in songs, usually slightly different than the main riff. But here it's different. This is something new. Something amazing to hear as a Charon fan. This solo is an amazing surprise and the culmination of all sad memories I have with this band.
I wanted to put a solo from their Fullmoon cover where Karol plays 2 in 1 but this can do. There are 3 solos and all are perfectly timed but the guest solo from Gunsen is the breaking point, when shit gets crazy. Best timing and best solo excluding japanese bonus track Link 7. Omnium Gatherum - Who Could Say
Who could say it will be on the list? Not as outstanding as The Unknowing, I know. But this can squeeze fucking tears, The Unknowing cannot. One of the best fitting solos of all time. Link 6. Aephanemer - Inner Storm
This had to be on this list, every time I hear the outro I'm feeling my powerlevel rising. The timing is perfect, this outro is so flawless that the song should just stop after it, I said that to Martin/Nif at least 2 times and I won't shut the fuck up about it. Link 5. Kalmah - They Will Return
If I wasn't sure about getting into Melodeath after Moon of My Nights this certainly fixed that. It's just pure madness, and the best part of it it's in the fucking beginning. No one could expect that after the already fast intro and many brains did not survive [*] Braindamage 4. Sonata Arctica - The Power of One
Ah yes, SA had many great songs to choose from but this one was pretty much the summary of this band. The most complex song of theirs and the best one in my opinion. From sadness to solo-happiness, from slower parts to fast madness this song is all that Sonata Arctica was about in their prime. And it all starts to show up after the title drop and the first solo. mic drop 3. Dio - Don't Talk to Strangers
One of the most obvious bands on the list but hard choice when it comes to songs, the original list had 18 Dio songs here but DTtS is the one. No words are needed, just see for yourself.
2. Galneryus - Angel of Salvation
One of the hardest choices in my life. I know, my life is boring and easy, fuck off. Anyway, almost impossible choice to make and I took the easy path, everyone knows or should now this solo by now.
1. Stratovarius- Elysium
And the obvious king of solos, many here, every single one fits, nothing new, nothing interesting, everyone agrees. The outro solo has a special mention, as it is also an outro to this list of 10 wonderful, amazing and peerless songs and their guitar solos.
Insomnium - Revelation
Heaven and Hell - Rock 'N Roll Angel
TrollfesT - Jevnes med Jorden (the only guitar Trollfest solo I know)
Powerwolf- Night of the Warewolves (surprisingly good)
Norther - Some Day (most amazing of all boring solos, the climate is perfect)
Dragonforce- Defenders (worse than Enceladus but still fun to hear)
Enceladus- Ethereality (in the middle of fast-show-off-solo-power-metal-bands)
Pathfinder (king of show-off solos but not good enough for the list)
Wintersun - Winter Madness (this might be surprising to many but I never thought this solo is the best in the world. It's great but only slightly more fitting than Pathfinder ones)
