Fan baiting

I've copied a nice twitter chain discussing Fan baiting. At this point most people tracking popular media came across something like that, be it through Star Wars, Ghostbusters or various Disney productions, most recently seen in Amazon's Rings of Power. 

“Fan-baiting” is a form of marketing used by producers, film studios, and actors, with the intent of exciting artificial controversy, garnering publicity, and explaining away the negative reviews of a new and often highly anticipated production. 

Fan-baiting emerged as a marketing strategy in 2016/17, after fans of beloved franchises such as Ghostbusters and Star Wars objected to what they saw as poor writing choices, sloppy scripts, and cheap alterations to plot lines and characters for the sake of shock value.

Along side these critics, there was a small group of bigoted but vociferous commentators who objected to the inclusion of black and female actors in roles traditionally held by white male actors. Some of these individuals began publicly harassing actors.

Bigots have always attacked diversity on screen, but in a highly polarized political climate, instances of harassment on garnered disproportionately massive media coverage, which provided production studios with both free publicity and a new defence against actual critics. 

Studios seized the opportunity to discredit criticism of poor writing & acting, insinuating that these, too, were motivated by bigotry. What used to be accepted as standard critiques were increasingly dismissed as part of the ignorant commentary of a “toxic fandom.”

Soon, it became standard practice before release to issue announcements specifying diverse casting choices, coupled with pre-emptive declarations of solidarity with the cast whom they now counted on to receive disparaging and harassing comments. 

Actors who are women and/or BIPOC became props & shields for craven corporate laziness and opportunism. The studios save money both by avoiding expensive veteran writers as well as by offloading publicity to news outlets and social media covering the artificial controversy.

“Fan-baiting” works. It brings in a new sympathetic audience whose endorsement is more about taking a public stance against prejudice than any real interest in the art. “Fan-baiting” also permits studios to cultivate public skepticism over the legitimacy of poor reviews.

“Fan-baiting” also compels reviewers to temper their criticism, for fear of becoming associated with the “toxic fandom” and losing their professional credibly, resulting in telling discrepancies between critic and audience review scores. 

The true nature of “fan-baiting” is never so clear as when a script is well-crafted and audience reviews are accordingly positive, exposing the announcements, declarations of solidarity, & grooming of skepticism for what they really are: cynical corporate marketing tactics.

Put another way, media corporations have found a way to monetize the racism that they set their actors up to receive. 

Amazon knows exactly what it's doing. One of the first images released was of Disa. On cue, a couple bigots said the predictable, allowing a giddy Amazon to release its pre-prepared scripted statement denouncing the "pushback". It's the new business model.

Fan-baiting isn't "black people getting cast". Rather, it's corporations banking on black people getting harassed to inflate publicity. Hence, diversity casting is in part motivated by the hope that the corporation can maximize harassment and, consequently, $$$.

Racism and sexism are the main issues. A secondary issue - one that is being overlooked - is corporate monetization of bigotry. Even while a studio purports to be "challenging bigotry" it is also counting on bigots being bigoted, and doing its best to direct them to the actors.

Is Luke Skywalker's appeariance in Mandalorian season 2 finale justified?

 Hello,

Tired of tweeting with limited characters I decided to write a blog post about it, even though this isn't really a place for star wars talk, I prefer to put it on Quora or Youtube but fuck it.

The situation as presented in the Mandalorian season 2 goes like this (as far as I remember):

Ahsoka tells Mando to put Grogu on a seeing stone on a planet Tython as doing so will send a beacon to any living jedi.

He does that, but Grogu is captured by Dark Troopers, taken to the Moff Gideon's cruiser, then the cruiser jumps into lightspeed.

Inside the cruiser Grogu isn't seen meditating, first he throws around some stormtroopers, then as far as I remember he gets tired and when Mando meets him and Moff Gideon we see Grogu tired with his hands binded by some handcuffs. Considering he isn't force choking Moff Gideon we can assume that the handcuffs don't allow Grogu to use the force.

More stuff happens, our heroes get stuck on the bridge of the ship, soon to be attacked by multiple Dark Troopers, pretty much hopeless.

But then Mr. Hope, Luke Skywalker himself appears with his x-wing and saves the day.

My problem with this scene: how did Luke know where to look? After talking and arguing with some fans on Twitter I got this solution.

1. Luke felt the beacon sent by Grogu on Tython, this is perfectly reasonable.
2. After that first connection was broken due to Grogu getting captured Luke either established a connection with Grogu, sensing him all the time or saw through the future where is he taken.

Both options aren't that great.We never had connections like that established in Star Wars aside of Luke&Leia and Rey&Kylo (who couldn't sense where they where so I'm gonna ignore Rey and Kylo). Leia could sense where Luke was while both of them were on Bespin. Would it work across the galaxy?

And no, force users can't sense other force users from across the galaxy, Vader was obsessed with Luke between parts 4 and 5 but didn't know where to look, he was sending probe droids across the galaxy to find him and the rebels.

Lets try the seeing through the future thing. We know that Luke could sense his friends being in danger on Bespin. The problem with Grogu is that he's stuck on a cruiser, what exactly can Luke see in the future, the planet nearby? And by visuals he's guessing which star system is he seeing? The location he could "see" in the future isn't very telling, I'm not buying it either.

3. Luke can navigate through hyperspace (so program the coordinates in his navigation computer) based on what he sensed/saw in point 2. And I really have a hard time buying it that he can guess the coordinates based on the beacon from Grogu.
He could easily fly to Tython, sure, but what next? Just search through nearby system? Ask locals where is the empire remnant located? This one isn't very likely considering Mando needed to break into an imperial base to get that information.

So, the scene in the season 2 finale is justified when we assume that Luke could sense Grogu after he was kidnapped and taken to a different star system and fly into that location based on a feeling.

Personally I'm not buying it, it all smells a lot like "because the Force" and like writing the show for the scriptwriter, because the script on it's own cannot explain and justify the scene.We can always add how conveniant it is that Luke showed up when he did, when all of the tie fighters were destroyed and cruiser's defenses were disabled.

And the worst part is that it's really easy to fix. In the cantina scene where Boba Fett is being humiliated by strong_female_character_1 and strong_female_character_2 we could have a drunk saying "I'm telling you, I saw a jedi following imperial troops!" with the rest of the company dismissing him as a drunk. Or they could show an x-wing parked nearby with a cloaked figure in the cantina's background, just sitting there (it could make sense since strong_female_character_1 and strong female_character_2 were known for taking an imperial cruiser before, so Luke could've been interested to learn more), standing up pretending to be shocked when Boba Fett and strong_female_character_2 started fighting.

Or just someone throwing a target locator on the Boba Fett's ship before it takes off to Moff Gideon's location.

That would hint the audience that Luke is actively searching for Grogu or the Empire.

There could also be a throw away line from Moff Gideon or one of his people that they were being tracked in the previous system probably by the New Republic.

I'm no writer but a good one would make it work. And would make the scene so much better, the emotional payoff without guessing from where the hell did Luke come from.

Amorphis - Queen of Time album review

 

I mean, Jari isn't even in the band or as a guest so was he even needed here on the album cover?

Ah, Amorphis, one of those bands in the back of my head asking to be checked out for years but I never had the time . Well, this review was demanded for quite a while now and I finally have a chance to check out this death metal band that through the years changed their musical style. I don't know the reason for this change, I can only assume it's because pure death metal is stagnant and boring and it doesn't fit a finnish band to be either of those things. Unless your name is Children of Boredom.

Since it's my first contact with the band I don't have or care about any specific details that should be said about band's history or how this release differs from the previous one, go check out professional reviewers for this stuff. If you can find them, it gets harder and harder nowadays.

1. The Bee

Shh, I know. The song starts with female voice, sounding a bit like Enigma's return to innocence chanting before male growls enter with verse 1. The intro has a rather cool keyboard melody but I like how they don't stretch it like Within Temptation and go straight to the verse after setting the mood for this song. 

And what a mood it is, closest I ever heard to this was Shade Empire, but here it's definitely isn't black metal. Just a good ass mix of death, symphonic and slightly progpower metal with a nice sublime pathos coming from clean vocals here and there.

They build their castles in the heads of kings

Yes, I know, the lyrics. From what I understand it's a finnish mythology thing but it's not my bee *snorts*. Still, definitely nice to have a story behind the lyrics and something for their already established fans to dig in and research for more pleasure.

When it comes to general audio quality it's as you would expect from a 13th studio album from most bands (not called Sonata Arctica) - it's polished, matured, they know how this stuff should sound, especially with growls. Sounds good on speakers, headphones and most likely potatoes as well.

But I'll give good old Nick what he deserves, especially with those lyrics.

A face you won't have while listening to this song

2. Massage in the Chamber

Message in the Amber, I know, I can dream can't I?

A folky, energetic melody starts this one before the song slows down and clean vocals start the verse. 

As in the previous one there's jumping between cleans and growls as another story is told, but in a more folky, adventurous tone.

There's a good usage of repetition in the first chorus to make the point with "Thus dawns the age of Moss" that doesn't repeat in the later choruses and I really liked this idea. Nothing revolutionary but allows the new audience to sing this line along with the upcoming ones.

There's a female led choir in the half of the song and there's something interesting just after it's part, at first I thought I heard some weird GLaDOS voice before realizing it's a vocoder "voice". It's definitely the first time I hear something like this "sing" the chorus and a really cool experiment by the band.

3. Daughter of Hate

So, like a child made during hate fuck? The lyrics don't say otherwise so I'll say "nailed it" and move on. As with the previous 2 songs it's another story related lyrics and just like other songs it has something interesting for us to check out and be surprised by- a saxophone solo (!) that kinda even fits, sorta, comes pretty much out of nowhere on the first listen but it's not bad. And a finnish spoken part in the 3/4rd of the song.

Dudes are really not scared of experimenting here.

4. The Golden Elk

Hopefully not eaten by Insomnium's Golden Wolf. Unlike the last 3 songs it's less story oriented and more catchy, probably because of the switcheroo- now death metal growls tell the verses and cleans sing the chorus.

Amorphis bumped into Orphaned Land here and got some oriental metal instruments in the middle of the song, so yet another cool addition here as well.

But I do have some criticism here- I don't like how vocals are structured in the second verse, second half, feels stretched a bit. Also the main guitar riff could be much juicier here, I didn't mind the guitar sound in the previous songs but here it calls for a good Kalmah treatment and make those guitars put a finger up the listener's ass a bit, make him feel a bit more uncomfortable but excited.

Still, I bitch about it but it's because I really like it and I care, so far it's my favourite here but it might change soon with

5. Wrong Direction

You know, back in the day it would call for a lame One Direction joke. But hell, One Direction compared to a lot of new stuff sounds *good*.

This song compared to previous 4 is basically a metal pop song. It's not story-oriented, it's almost exclusively clean vocals and the structure is very simple.

And I love it.

It really doesn't need to be anything more and just shows that those guys can do both complex and simple stuff well. It's not like Nightwish did with "Harvest" on their last album, this song isn't out of place here. Guitar&keyboard main melody is very similar to the opening track's and we get some kind of flute as a break interlude, some very good and powerful drumming and great, powerful growls during the outro with female choirs to finish the song on a strong note.

A textbook definition of a hit song here.

6. Heart of a Giant

Starts slowly to give the listener a small break after the previous song before it speeds up to somewhat a power metal epic-story-style song.

Sadly the flow of the song is disrupted by the melody of the chorus, I really can't understand what they were going for here. The chorus melody goes well with the guitar solo but the verses and instrumentals between sound more streamlined than the chorus full of stops.

7. We Accursed

Similar to the previous song the intro would suggest another epic story told with the power metal rhythm and it actually delivers, the chorus flows nicely here, even if the lyrics could be stronger or catchier.

There's a fun interlude before the guitar solo which is solid and flows into a keyboard solo with a cool rhytm guitar beside it.

This song is a good example on how you write a power metal song with growls and fun without going into Alestorm (lame joke band & shit quality content) territory, even if lyrics could be a bit better here.

8. Grain of Sand

An overall mid tempo song with some of that oriental metal feel and with a simpler structure than the last 2 songs and really cool guitar transitions. It's hard to say something more, it's a blend of what we already heard on this album but not catchy & memorable enough to give more spotlight.

9. Amongst Stars

Anneke van Giersbergen is here and I won't dare to review a song with the most lovely woman in metal world in there. My reviews aren't objective at all but I just love her voice too much to turn on the reviewer mode, sorry. I can only say that if you don't like something from this song then there's always Anneke's voice to make you feel better. And think of her wonderful smile while you listen.

10. Pyres on the Coast

Excluding the bonus songs it's the closer of the album and the intro lets you know about that, starting strong before slowing down for the verse, telling a story of the upcoming pirate attack on the coast and the people being ready for it.

While not as full of pathos as the opening track it definitely delivers a closure, being structurally solid, driven mostly by the growls that fit the lyrical theme of this song. There are some calmer interludes with very distorted, distant guitar sounds and ends with a strong drumming and riffing with some 'epic' keyboards going in the background.

Well, what a mixed bag this album was. I'm very impressed after my first bump with Amorphis as they are very creative and experimental for their 13th studio album. While I don't know their previous works I can't say it's an unlucky album for them, first half of the album is very solid and only on the second half I met some ideas I wasn't on board with.

It's a long piece of art, having a bunch of songs over 6 minutes long and they aren't bloated or stretched so it definitely wasn't an easy listen, with all the experiments or complex structures, maybe I got too tired before the second half of the album to appreciate it fully.

All the pieces of the album (vocals, instruments, experiments, structures, lyrics, themes, mixing) are well crafted and thought out, it was really hard to pinpoint certain elements that didn't fit the album so I can only say what I personally dislike, and it should be no surprise to some that it's the death metal parts.

I would fall in love if it was a melodic death metal band mixing all those other genres elements, but the way growls are sang (while being of very high quality themselves) just screams death metal to me, it's hard to explain- it's like there's some kind of constant struggle and anger in his voice that takes me out of the immersion done by lyrics, cleans and instruments only to remind me that I listen to something that chose to be death metal.

But I'm fully aware it's just me, any fan of mixed death metal should love it to..death. And I would lie if I said I wasn't floating along the magic of storytelling during the first half of the album.

Nightwish, take fucking notes on how you write lyrics & sing them during the verses, you don't have to force your vocalists to add fake melody to words by singing them different, you can make not rhymed verses and add more melody on choruses like Amorphis did here. They had a story to tell, they didn't force rhymes and just made the instrumental background a blank canvas for their lyrical picture they wanted to show.

Epica, take fucking no-no. No. Just stop, you lame fucking band, Amorphis does everything you do better. In symphonic, growling and prog stuff they are lightyears above your shit. You are allowed to blatantly copy Amorphis songs, because a lame copy/cover of Amorphis will be better than your fucking shit.

Sadly I can't say I'll become a huge Amorphis fan after listening to this record but I'm very glad I finally checked them out, I like what I heard here.

Summary:

Vocals:   9/10

Guitars: 7/10 , more juice next time please

Bass:      I actually heard some this time/10

Drums:  8+/10

Keyboards: 8/10

Additional scores:

++ a lot of fun experiments and ideas, rare for bands with that amount of albums released

+ very cool lyrical themes

+ the whole album sounds like a concept album, all songs feel connected

+ high quality of mixing and production

+ rich backgrounds, bunch of cool sounds used, better than some pure symphonic bands

Final Score: 96%. - Worth checking out for symphonic, death, power metal fans. Most metal fans will find something they like here. A generally good metal album here.

Without Translation- Father Mars album review on demand

I think I can make a decent living with album cover art

Two reviews in a row, you didn't expect that, eh? So, by popular demand of exactly one person I decided to write my first and hopefully the last review of a Within Temptation album. Called by many fans their best work, the album Mother Earth is on the table tonight.

Will it's contents satisfy an asshole like me? Can it wash the bad taste I still have after the Delain's last shit of an album?  How does it compare to like 4 symphonic metal albums I actually like?

Let's start with the title song Mother Earth and with some pipes (?). My extreme knowledge of instruments is only matched by my MS Paint skills. Soon the typical sympho metal crap follows stretching the instrumental intro over one minute long, but since it's an album opener it's fine to build some atmosphere and stretch (stretching is important kids, respect your joints) the intro.

Thankfully vocals soon follow with quite a high pitch and nice long notes from Sharon, while there's a fast waltz on the violins in the background and surprise- drums aren't as boring as I expected from the band. Thankfully the song is a medium tempo because slowing down & turning down the volume to include some male vocals isn't a great idea for an album opener.

But they made it work and the outro is quite cool too. Sadly I don't have good headphones now but I think the band was angry at the guitarist during the songwriting, I barely hear any.

Ice Queen 

Oh hey a song title about my ex girlfriend (comedy gold, everyone stop making comedy- no one will top that shit joke). 

Again, a one minute long intro before the vocals enter, but more atmosphere building than just masturbating the symphonic elements so we're cool. Slightly more guitars, but they don't sound well, I have a joke poking out of my pocket but I'll leave it for later. Vocals again the main driving force of the song with top quality singing and emotions in the key moments, especially just before transitions.

It's hard to focus on anything else, mostly because vocals and drums dominate the sound (quite unexpected from a radio friendly band to put so much focus on drums).

A very nice song, short break in the middle doesn't kill the flow as in the previous song, heartbeating-like sound in the outro also fits the theme. 

Also worth noting that I don't need to have the lyrics in front of me because Sharon sings very clearly.

Our Farewell

Starts slow with a piano and a violin and soon only vocals follow, again, being the main force of the song. Sharon sings the whole thing slowly with a lot of perfectly delivered long notes, and even though the lyrics don't rhyme or suggest a melody she makes it work without using the extremely annoying way of singing I struggled with yesterday during the Nightwish review.

Oh wow, there's a guitar solo! Still doesn't sound well, so either the mixing guy had a personal beef with the guitarist or the guitarist had this discussion.. wait, before I follow with another shitty joke- they have TWO guitarists in this band? Why? I know a guy that can play all this stuff with one hand and they have four? Maybe I don't know some tragic personal stories about the number of their limbs but damn, now my joke doesn't work as well as it should but I still need to follow up with it as I teased it earlier:

The solo definitely overcheeses the song to the extreme, thankfully the outro is ok with Sharon's great vocals.

Caged

The pipes return with a cheerful and I don't know why, they don't fit the song where Sharon is angry at some dude. But don't worry, nothing fits anything in this song, After Sharon produces a lot of frustration the instrumental pause has a sad tone while afterwards Sharon shows off her operatic millenial whoops along with a choir and later guitars and drums enter with a hard rock transition before pipes come back.

What is this mess? What do You want me to feel? It's shorter than 6 minutes and the mood shifts like 7 times. Definitely shouldn't be placed on a supposedly great album.

The Promise

And now boring over 1 minute long intros come back for absolutely no reason. But I think it's the first medium-fast or fast song so far we get after the intro. But it slows down soon for vocals because Symphonic metal fans apparently can't handle fast tempos all the way through. The song afterwards plays around with pacing to make it sound more epic, but the instrumentals aren't adding much to that idea- drum patterns are boring, transitions are simple and guitars are heavily underused. I expected way more from an 8 minute long "epic" song, it sounds almost like a joke compared to similar songs in power metal bands.

Never-ending Story

Yes, for a second I waited for "aaaah-aaaaah-aaaaaah" but then I figured out it's a different song. Sadly. It's a nice, chill ballad but Limahl definitely nailed it way more with their version.

Deceiver of Fools

Another long one, who can bet there's a 1 minute long intro where nothing happens? 

...

Damn it, not only I don't get paid for these but I lost money in a bet, vocals enter at 50 second mark.

And I started falling asleep before something more interesting started happening, losing focus as any novelty I felf in the beginning of the album already faded away. Sharon while having amazing vocals sounds just too similar in the songs and I'm having a Tarja concert flashbacks. The song is much better than The Promise when it comes to transitions and variety, but in The Promise at least was a fast tempo in the beginning to wake me up, here it took 6,5 minutes to shift the tempo to a faster one.

Intro

Hey, at least now they took a 1 minute long intro out of the song and put it as a separate song for some reason. For no reason probably, since previous songs had them built-in.

Dark Wings

And the song is even 4 minutes long, so the above Intro could be well enough put inside and it would change nothing.

The song is a welcome change with a more upbeat tempo and simpler structure at least for a short while since of course any nice, simpler break needs to be ruined around the half of the song and be annoying with Sharon yelling along instrumentals before it slows down for a break.

Then I predict a guitar solo and back for the chorus.. Yup, at least this time the guitar solo actually sounds like something I can't learn in a week.

In Perfect Harmony

Another longer one, at least with a pleasing intro this time, no unnecessary symphonic crap. And Sharon also chilled down with high notes and trying to sound like a phantom of the opera. Chill tones, some simple guitar solos and in general a good album outro.

Ok, finally done with this record, even though the ending was definitely more enjoyable than the middle.

I can totally see why symphonic metal fans like this album- there are high pitched vocals, bunch of opera crap, good use of choirs, rich backgrounds and the guitars are being kicked and peed on just like symphonic metal fans like it. Bad guitars, go back to heavier metal, there is no place for you here!

And I'm ever so glad to say I'm not a symphonic metal fan. I felt quality and fresh air when I started listening to this album, but during the middle the novelty ran out, songs had very little energy, vocals started to sound too similar, especially in places where Sharon wanted to outtarja Tarja. Drums actually got worse as the album progressed, or I lost focus way more than I thought.

There's not much of a concept here, aside of a fitting intro-outro that pack the album nicely, lyrics are good and Sharon's way to sing them is even better, song placement is fine and the general quality of sound is very high, aside of mixing guitars.

It's definitely an album driven by vocals, they get treated way better than everything else in the mix and in the general songwriting. While I don't know the band- with what I've heard here I don't see them making an interesting instumental song.

Final score:

Vocals:   10+/10
Guitars: 4/10
Bass:      not applicable/10
Drums:  7/10
Keyboards: 9/10


Additional scores:
+ well it delivers what the fans want I guess
+ rich backgrounds, bunch of cool sounds used
+ holds up after all that time as I didn't listen to the remaster
+ generally a good quality of mixing and production
+ good lyrics both in quantity and quality
- lack of energy aside of a few hit songs
- bunch of intros everywhere that slow down the momentum of the song and pacing of the whole album
- total tonal mess in Caged
- you can fire one guitarist and the bassist and there will be no difference in sound, trust me.


Final Score: 78%. - Symphonic metal fans will be very happy, pop fans should be rather happy, rest of metalheads will fall asleep somewhere around song nr. 6

Nightwish - Human bad, Nature good album review

I should make album covers for a living, I'm so great at it.

Every few years we get a new Nightwish album that tries to both sound and not sound like the previous Nightwish. Followed by a bunch of both easy and hard to please symphonic metal version of Slayer fans it's a definitely one of a kind band.

So, is Tarja era still better? Is the album worse than any Anette album? Find out when I don't answer any of these questions because who the fuck cares, here we go with

Nightwish: Omnium -[ ]- Gatherum 

Human :) Nature :( 

Orange man bad

Phone bad

Human. :||: Nature.

Human. :||: Natvre.

Get it? Because Nightwish is so trve kvlt metal satan6666!!!11 I think I'm having a stroke. Here we go:

Music (don't name your songs that way, jesus christ)
It starts slow with the both industrial and animal sounds, jungle drums, keyboards drowned in a swimming pool, then choirs, incepction trailer bwaah with a electric guitar and then enter vocals.

First thing that annoys me is that the lyrics themselves don't have any melody at all aside for the chorus. I don't expect words to rhyme because overrhyming is a sin too, but to avoid sounding like talking Floor is using a very annoying way of singing words, stretching some words while singing fast the others.
Thankfully the general structure of the song, guitar solo and drums are good enough to make it an ok opener.

There, I`ll greet the greedy crowd

But will never, ever sing to them

Well, coming from a band that has gigs organized by Live Nation it sounds really fucking stupid.

Noise

Ok intro, stupid transition, intro continues. Can't decide if it's artistic or autistic. Then the track continues into a yet another Nightwish-Hit-Single-Music-Video-Material (or NHSMVM for an easy to remember short name) which is fine, definitely shows Delain how the lyrics should be written for a good single as the chorus is a perfect blend of catchy and meaningful, no lazy millenial whoop added.

I can't say the verses are perfect though, Floor sings them so fast she loses breath at times which is audible in the song and the sins of the previous song are still visible at times (but overall it's good) 

Cool instrumental moments and ideas, like pausing a second after a strike of a big drum, speeding up in the 2/3rd. Definitely reminds the listener that Nightwish was or still is considered partially a power metal band (and now they have a drummer that can enrich those power metal elements).

Shoemaker

So far the worst of the three, the annoying way of singing is the strongest here and I can't believe no one in the band thought it's a bad idea, especially Marko who has a great sense of vocal and lyrical melody.

Instrumental parts aren't anything special either, only the opera vocals and choirs in the 3/4 of the song save it by being really good. Strong finisher for a bland, bad song.

Harvest

Jungle drums open this rather chill, almost acoustic (if not for the background) song sang well by Troy and with rather well written lyrics with just one small annyoing part ("water the field, surrended to the earth" he sings the first the so fast it sounds like "water fields" ).

But no, Nightwish couldn't have a nice, short, thematically fitting song to break the metal parts, there is an out of ass clapping followed by a totally unnecessary symphonic metal parts with a pipe and guitar solos that fucking LAST FOREVER in a typical pseudoprog fashion, followed by another out of ass idea (short radio vocals).

I don't understand why the fuck they would ruin a nice, short break from metal parts by adding the metal parts, is meeting the 5 minute mark so fucking important? The solo part is almost 90 FUCKING SECONDS LONG.

Cool idea totally ruined.

Pan

Back to no melody in the vocals. Nightwish should be glad I don't have good headphones now, because I believe there might be a flaw in the mixing but I'll take the blame for now.

This time even the chorus isn't catchy. There are some cool heavy metal parts, something Visions of Atlantis should use more in their music, especially in music videos.

The part after the second chorus, with the instrumental mess and choirs can be summarized only with this:

Very tiring and the lyrics don't suggest that this way of presentation is needed.

How's the Heart startings interestingly with heart beating before pipes come back with a vengence.

It sounds lighter and more pop-ish in the beginning but in a typical Floor-Nightwish fashion it needs to be ruined around 2/3rd of the song with experimentation. 

There's a good melody in the lyrics here but Floor still screws the chorus singing like this:

How's that heart

Underneaththesilence?

How's the one

Drowninginthemire?

To meet the 5 minute mark the last 2 minutes of the song is repeating the chorus as if it was something spectacular. Floor definitely puts her best in the last few. At least they didn't Luca Turilli'd this one with starting the song with the chorus like a retard.

Procession

Oh wow (phrase ruined by Christopher Bowes overusing it), an actually good Nightwish song. Kinda, at the very least good effort.

First of all Floor chills down with annoying way of singing, sounding more like talking and it fits the main idea of the song since it's a story with a progression in music.

The lyrics are good, even if endings of sentences could have more power + the last verse hammers down the point a bit too much, it's still fine.

The instrumental break in the middle is a bit too long (SO IMPORTANT TO MEET THAT FUCKING 5 MINUTE MARK, EH!? ) but overall, in the end it's an idea for a song realized well and it counts. So far a second song after Noise that I personally like.

Tribal

I was so close to saying "Make that a third song that I like". It starts well with a good amount of heavy sounds and Floor high and long notes followed by fast, aggressive singing and headbanging guitars afterwards along with pretty disturbing atmosphere and grunting. 120% love from me.

So what went wrong? Well Nightwish's fun police enters at 3 minute mark and adds sounds that totally bring you out of the atmosphere and sound more like Alone in the Dark movie soundtrack.

Whoever's idea was it to ruin that song- an honest fuck you.

Endlessness 

I'm not surprised my friend shared this song on facebook- it's the best on the album even if Marko sings in the same annoying fashion like Floor during the verses (thankfully not too much).

The chorus is the main selling point, catchy, with a good atmosphere and fitting Marko's voice. Everytime I hear that man singing I wish there was one more Tarot's album.

Nightwish doesn't implement any experimental ideas and lets the song proceed gracefully to the end with a fitting guitar solo too. Floor pops in for a second but only adds, she doesn't ruin anything.

Well, this album is definitely a trip. It's hard to describe as a whole, but I'll do my best.

As it's a concept album the concept part is done really well, the theme of this whole mess is presented nicely, lyrics don't repeat themselves when it comes to presenting the idea.

Lyrics are well written, there's a plenty of them and the quantity is the best quality here, because when it comes to melodic flow in the lyrics there are some very audible lacks that are patched by the style of singing, which kept annoying me through the majority of the album.

But I am willing to let them pass, because of the sheer number of words used and that they fit the concept very well.

Vocals are good and the passion of both vocalists is there, I don't like the way of singing some parts but when a certain song needs strong vocals- they are there.

Not much to say about guitars, bass and drums- drums are definitely the most rich of these three and they utilized Kai Hahto's extraordinary skills much better than on the previous album, they let him shine where he can. Riffs are quite boring, safe but the solos don't sound bad.

Background is rich with keyboards and other sounds, I'm no specialist when it comes to symphonic metal elements but they are there, well mixed in and fit the sound very nicely.

I have a lot of problems with the general structures of the songs and experimentation. I know that Nightwish has a lot of fans to please, so they need to both play it safe for the old audience, introduce enough new ideas to avoid repetition but also stay catchy.

But there's a lot of good ideas ruined by later experimentation or good ideas later ruined by trying to play it safe and sound similar to good old Nightwish.

While I'm aware it's a very difficult game to play as you can't please everyone I'm definitely not happy with the outcome.

Final score:

Vocals:   9-/10
Guitars: 7/10
Bass:      8/10
Drums:  8+/10

Additional scores:
++ very nicely realized concept of the album
++ very rich background, defintiely a must-listen to fans of symphonic crap.
+ standard nightwish quality is there when it comes to mixing and production
+ a lot of lyrics, definitely not written on a knee during a trip to the studio
+ all 3 vocalists did a good job and worked nicely in duets & choirs
+ good song placement on the album, more exhausting elements are followed by more chill stuff.
-- They tried too much to be Ayreon, Luca Turilli or Avantasia here and it failed more than it succeeded.
-- a bunch of initially good ideas ruined afterwards
- very little melody in the verses of a few songs
- very annyoing way of singing mentioned verses to avoid "talking, not singing"

Final Score: 85%. - Nightwish fans will be very happy, symphonic metal fans will be happy, power metal fans won't feel like they wasted time, new Delain album fucking sucks compared to this.

The Dark Element- Songs The Night Sings album review

A few weeks ago I reviewed my first Visions of Atlantis album for https://strong-as-hell.com and I was pretty surprised how good it was and that it will be a good opponent for Jani's new masterpiece.

Will the second album live up to the Dark Element debiut from 2017? Will it beat Wanderers?  I'm sure the answer for both those questions is 'yes' but let's find out.

Not Your Monster , track number one.
Compared to the debut's first song we have more background riffing and more background in general.
When I heard it for the first time it seemed weaker than the other 2 new singles but reviewing this album I hear it has values of it's own, especially the progressive middle instrumental part adds more complexity than it was present on the previous album. The build-up leads nicely to a vocal part enriched by the heavenly choirs before it all fells silent for the piano solo break before it goes back to headbanging. Definitely more stuff is happening compared to the debut's opener track.


Songs the Night Sings- so the titular track is second on the second album, while it was first on the first album. I don't know if that was intended but it's a fun thing to notice. Absolutely a hit song here and views on Youtube show that.
Basically the 'Omnium Gatherum's Frontiers' for symphonic metal,  a genre defining song, one you show to people when you introduce them to the genre or show the absolute best of it. From amazing structure, angelic vocals, catchy lyrics and flowing melody through rich background,  cool drum transitions to a fucking bass solo and a screaming guitar solo. Add some electronic sounds to the chorus and you can spin this track alone for an hour.


When It All Comes Down melody really reminds me of one polish electronic music song( C-BooL - Magic Symphony), definitely an interesting case as the song mixes fast intro with slow pace on vocals and very fast guitar solo where Jani goes crazy and my dick gets hard. 
I think the outro while cool and atmospheric could be tiny bit shorter, still a great song.

Silence Between The Words has a lighter tone but the lyrical themes aren't as positive as the sound. Less experimental that the last song as as usually 4th track of any album is a little break this also serves it's porpoise.

happily served porpoise

Ekhem, the outro sounds like the good years of Delain. Scratch that, it sounds better with Anette putting some strong emotions, awesome.

Pills on my Pillow [insert old gold Grabbin' Pills meme here] 

Always heard but not believed

Not even by me

Ok, this is something I wish Babymetal was more on their last album- disco mixed with symphonic metal/rock but with dark lyrical themes. The most pop Dark Element ever sounded but honestly it's just FUN as FUCK.

To Whatever End is a ballad with heavy focus on Anette's vocals and oh boy does she deliver. Anyone saying "she's a pop vocalist, not a good metal vocalist" should shut up, she can definitely deliver chills down your spine with songs that bring her best performances out. And Jani can defitely help her shine like a confinement beam at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California. 

Analogy brough to you by https://what-if.xkcd.com/13/


The Pallbearer Walks Alone starts almost like a melodic death metal track before going into a hit song filled with lyric repetitions in verses and bridges. While it helps to get the message clear and across I think it's tiny bit too much. Still, it's the 'good' kind of repetition so I'll give it a pass.
Some slight industrial and electronic vibes here and there, very catchy chorus and a good solo help to focus on more positive aspects of the song so in the end it's good.

Get Out Of My Head really stands out since the intro melody is cool but the lyrics are the worst so far, short and weak, it feels like even Anette isn't bringing her A game, especially heard with "is still a rose" line.
But then from 2:35 we have some weird experimentation that would work in a song if the first half wasn't so bad (or on a different song). It doesn't save the general feel that this song is a filler or should be polished a bit more.

If I Had A Heart worries me at first if it's another filler but it has enough oomph behind it with the solo, it's placement, background and Anette's performance that it deserves to be called a good song, even if it's simpler than previous songs.

You Will Learn experiments a bit with the radio voice in the beginning but then it turns into heavy headbang track and finally shifts the lyrical themes from broken hearts to self improvement which is it's highest positive, feels like a fresh puff of air after weeks spent in a small room.
Sadly the chorus is overrepeated a bit in the end (despite being great), but the outro itself is very nice.

I Have To Go is a relaxing closer to this album, sounding like a totally different genre (I'm too dumb to clearly say what). It's short, it's good, heavy focus on Anette and ends without any explosions.
So let's add some!

I'm Michael, maybe not Bay but close enough

So these are the songs that night sings, eleven of them. Could be ten which would make the album better but if Jani wants to add something more experimental than others then who am I to judge.

Jani definitely experimented more on this album than on previous one and added more power, more backgrounds without making it another Cain's Offering album so overall it sounds like an improvement over the first album- kept the catchy stuff we loved and added something new. Also as I asked during the debut review- there are more solos, so my score is higher.

Anette is without changes, still nails in almost every track and To Whatever End really stands out as probably the best song I heard her sing when it comes to vocal performance alone.

When it comes to bass and drums I heard a bass solo so hey, there's that. I didn't notice changes in the drum area, changing the drummer didn't change the sound. I will miss 'the other Jani' in this project but Rolf 'always happy to play in anything' Pilve is always welcome in any band/project.

At last compared to Wanderers it's a close match as both albums are great. But I'll take experimental over sexy boi Michele and tentacle porn anyday. And yes, without context it looks even worse than with.

Final score:

Vocals:   10/10
Guitars: 10+/10
Drums:   9/10

Additional scores:
+ still catchy
+ still complex (more than on the debut)
+ still cool lyrics
+ still great mixing
+ still good song placement on the album
+ overall a good follow up to the debut, lives up to the highly set expectations, like Silence to Ecliptica
- there are some failed experiments and repetitions
- While there's improvement I still think more varied lyrical themes could be good for the project, a lot of broken heart related songs here.
+ Anette isn't from Finland, she's from Sweden. I didn't know that during my first review so now I give her a plus as an apology since the score doesn't matter anyway.

Final Score: 109%. A must-listen to any Jani and Anette fan, definitely a money/time well spent for anyone else.

PS:  score for Bass guitar was 9+/10, I just like to joke with bass scores in my reviews since I never hear bass. Sorry I explained the joke, I just ruined it, now Karol won't love me anymore. Which also without context looks at least a little weird.

PPS: back from my 2017 review:

I am so sorry for being a lazy shit, I bet it's wonderful though

I forgot- since there's a small chance Anette/band will publish my extremely weird review on facebook I should write a sentence that summarizes the album well and shows my proficiency in album reviewing.. Uhh, ok, here it goes:

This masterpiece from Finnish Swedish Scandinavian duo Jani Liimatainen & Anette Olzon shows the world that symphonic metal can be something more fun than snooze-inducing, recycled Nightwish clones. It's fun, experimental and Frontiers please give them money for a tour after you fix your warehouse issues of course.

aaand I think I failed. Thanks for reading, You're the best.

Sonata Arctica " Talviyö" review

OH BOY HERE I GO REVIEWING AGAIN!

Let's start by showing how the summary of the last album went:

This is a perfect summary of my relation to that band. I probably won't see it live again, but who knows. I won't trust them to deliver good music as well. But for now I smile, the music is better than it was, and who knows? It might be a new start.

So let's see how my 'new start' went after past 3 years of having a love-hate relationship with Sonata Arctica. Will it be our last amazing grays or should they don't say a word again? Let's jump in with the first track on the album Message from the Sun 

Wow, semi fast tempo was something I didn't expect from them anymore. Positive, magical vibes of the song are taken down by absolute lack of power in the vocals, hidden behind multi-layered lines that suggest it's a song where the audience sings along in order to hide Tony's declining skill in singing. Lyrics are solid but there are some strange decisions (for example the outro cuts rather weakly with Glow, the meaning divine of the rhymes in the snow. )
The sound is absolute plastic, it starts rather strong with a slower intro but with each second I think more and more "why do they need guitars in that music anymore? Elias's parts are treated like shit". Solo in the 2/3 of the songs starts weak like hell, I needed to play it again since I already forgot how forgettable it was.

Overall a bad start, tiny bit better than Closer to an Animal from the last album, but there Tony sounded more interested in what he's singing. A pity, it had potential to be a bridge between Winterheart's Guild and Unia's Sonata eras with a handful of ideas taken from both of these albums but the mixing and weak vocals ruined this opportunity.

Whirlwind is a second track and the intro part sounds rather interesting (just like with the last song) for the first 50 second, then the tone shifts by 180 degrees. And after a few minutes more we finally have a good Sonata song. Ok, time to explain.
It shows how important is a vocalist puting some emotions and effort in a song- it's clearly hearable he's more invested here. Thematically it's a mix between Broken and Only The Broken Hearts (Make You Beautiful) , the structure (excluding the intro) is very right and the song progresses nicely.
You can hear someone who is during the healing process, being both optimistic for the recovery and struggling during the winter times (which adds to the winter night tone of the album).

It's good, but I cannot say "omg they NAILED IT!". First of all the production is still far from perfect, I don't think I need to explain, it's been a bigger or smaller issue since Pariah Child. Second- the intro- from the moment electric guitars enter it doesn't fit the motive at all, or I'm not understanding something right. Then the tone of the song is all around- the 'happy' parts are just too happy (Tony is almost TOO invested in sounding happy, he could channel it to the previous song) and transition to the sadder parts could be made less abrupt. Instrumental parts with the previously not fitting electric guitar don't help set the climate either.
The outro also struggles during the 4:55 - 5:22 part with some weird ideas and repetitions.

Cold is third and I heard it before on Youtube. Album's quality is much better but it doesn't help with 2 things - Tony's bored and uninvested singing and very slow tempo. Multiple comments on youtube were right that this songs sounds quite decent on 1,25 tempo.
I think the worst part is transition to a (finally) decent guitar solo, the vocals just don't give a shit. To a point where I remember George Carlin's quote about God:

So, if there is a God, I think most reasonable people might agree that he's at least incompetent, and maybe, just maybe, doesn't give a shit. Doesn't give a shit! Which I admire in a person, and which would explain a lot of these bad results.”

Tony doesn't give a shit here, his album will still sell enough copies to have a living, there will still be enough fangirls and "Sonata come to Chile" people in the comments plus some delusionals that will read sponsored by Nuclear Blast album reviews saying "hey Sonata is back with their best album yet!". When you are burned out and don't need to push yourselves to do better then why should you?

I digress, back to the review, Cold is shit that again- could be a lot better with a very little effort, move on to Storm the Armada
Now this one is pretty interesting- Tony's invested in singing again BUT the production pushed him behind everything, his vocals here are so behind that I think most of them are in the booklet.
There are some quirks connected to that, like his someway in 2:31 being more audible than the rest of the lyrics which sounds really bizzare, like a novice mistake on a mixing table, unfit for 10th fucking album from them.
This song is all around the place, I had no idea what are they trying to say with multiple instrumental parts, tone shifts and lyrics about seemingly just random shit but the ending is clearing out the message- THE BEES

It's weird and I don't like it, moving on, maybe like Zeroes I will start to like it after multiple listens but probably not because Zeroes had a decent audio engineering behind it.

The Last of the Lambs. LISTENING TO THIS SONG IS PAIN, MORE THAN NICHOLAS CAGE ABOVE IS FACING. MOVING THE FUCK ON. DON'T LISTEN TO IT, GET A SOFTWARE THAT CAN ERASE TRACK 5 FROM THE CD OR SOME SHIT.

Who Failed The Most - You did Sonata, a few seconds ago releasing the worst song since Love and following with a bland, badly mixed, too slow piece with Tony's bored vocals. This song is not worth talking more about it, it barely has any redeeming values.

Ismo's Got Good Reactors - best song on the album. Why? No vocals. Therefore harder to fuck up the mixing. Interesting riffs and nice fast tempo with some uplifting, even oriental melodies.
Maybe consider kicking Tony out of the band? It looks like he's the weakest part of the band nowadays. The story behind the song's name is also quite fun.

Demon's Cage . Ok, first of all how dare you mention the "C" word here, The Cage was and is an amazing song from the Sonata's best, flawless era and this is .. A lot of repetition, a lot of experimentation that absolutely fucks the dynamic of the song- there is no flow, some vocals are written by an idiot. It's just hard to listen to, after 3 minutes I struggle to pay attention to it.
I wonder why they repeat the same melodic line, it's not that good really..

A Little Less Understanding is a little less bad, but also a little more disappointing since it was the first song of the album shown to the public and it wasn't anything amazing. Turns out it was one of the "good" songs on the album with Tony's soft voice being kinda invested in singing, there are no dumb experiments and just a lot of repetition (but the melody is nicer so it's.. ok?).
I have a little less understanding what they wanted to say with this album, maybe "we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel on this one, in 3 years we really couldn't think of anything better". Oh, and the most cheesy solo is here, in the worst meaning of the word.

The Raven Still Flies is a story, I think. I'm not sure. Probably something written on the back of the album package

JARI FOR THE LAST TIME FUCK OFF WITH YOUR FOREST PACKAGE, I GAVE YOU 50 EURO WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT!? LEAVE ME ALONE!

...
So as I was saying something on the back of the album package

fuck off, for older fans to buy it thinking it's maybe something connected to Wolf & Raven.

I hope You know.. I hope You know

No Tony I have no idea what you want to say with this song.

During the instrumental part I'm really lost, it's just another experimentation song, something that should never exit the demo phase. Something that Devin Townsend thinks of in the middle of the night and puts on Youtube as "thought leftovers" with some very disturbing images on a Youtube video. God I digress so bad but this album is just so bland, boring, meaningless and THE LAST SONG, HERE WE FUCKING GO!

Some Galneryus break to recharge batteries, phew, The Garden

Just 6 minutes, after painfully stretched last songs, I can do it! Oh it's like a ballad I think, soft and calm, like observing a cold winter wind behind a window of a warm room under a blanket with a cup of cocoa in a hand. 

At least that what I was hoping for, in time it's just too boring, too long and too sweet, to a point where I start worrying about diabetes. I'll give it a pass.

Ok, so I think I need to write a summary now.

It's bad. Is it Pariah Child bad? I don't know, it's like comparing cat shit to dog shit, in the end it doesn't matter which is worse since both are shit.

Why are there 11 songs on this album? Couldn't they skip a few and call it a day? It might have helped with some of the problems but in the end we have 2 good songs, 4 bland but passable and 5 bad/boring ones. The worst part is that you cannot blame shit audio engineering and bored vocals for all the problems here. That and that we waited 3 years and the band wasn't particulary active in that time so they cannot justify bad writing with little time they had to come up with something for this album.

I really don't want to talk about this cd anymore so;

Vocals: 2/10

Guitars: 3/10

Keyboards: 6/10

Drums: 8/10

Bass: Just fuck you Pasi/10

Additional: 

+ There is one song that has that Sonata feeling. I really appreciate it, it made me for a minute feel young again.

--- mixing

-- vocalist sounds like he doesn't want to be there more often than not

- a lot of experimentation that shouldn't appear on a final product

- everything out of touch, out of place, all bloated, too long, not necessary. It just lacks essence and message.

- major disappointment after the previous album which had it's moments

Final score: 24% oh how the mighty have fallen, hopefully it's the last one or they will have a major reinventing afterwards because this album is broken. As the song with that title says Once again hope I died for the last time

Welcome Band-Maid to my list of favourites

Today:

 0. Band-Maid
 1. Avatar
 2. Trollfest
 3. Insomnium
 4. Whispered
 5. Babymetal
 6. Gloryhammer
 7. Omnium Gatherum
 8. Cain's Offering
 9. Galneryus
10. Stratovarius
11. Devin Townsend
12. Delain
13. Alestorm
14. Skálmöld
15. Wintersun

Yes, there was a hidden number 0 band on my list, cheers for those who noticed.
Titanium and Pathfinder are out. Why? Well, I don't really count dead bands, otherwise the list would be dominated by Dio and Charon. I don't think Pathfinder will play again and Titanium probably will play again once more in the future but for now they are out. Delain is moved far as they definitely don't deserve a spot in top 10 because of how they mistreated gifts from me on Masters of Rock 2017, how they handled their live dvd cashgrab and how Martjin blocked me for absolutely no reason (and I really mean it).
We have 3 newcomers though! And the list is longer to a healthy 15. Devin Townsend fits nicely on number 11, he's a wonderful man and probably the best musician I know but for many personal reasons other bands have still a bigger impact on my life. But when we count single people, not bands then he's my number 1 definitely.
Avatar is one of the best discoveries in the last few years, holy shit Johan my boi and jesus christ man u scary fam. Ok, I'm back to writing as a human being- amazing sound, diverse as fuck, can do concept albums well which is very rare nowadays and live in my top 5 concerts in a lifetime.
Give that frontman a circus.

And my magical secret-no-more (Sonata Arctica's Blinded No More plays in the background) number 0 is a girls-only japanese hard rock band.Those girls are cute as hell and I've always been a huge sucker for japanese girls (before I was fat and into anime/manga so you can't say it was since I am a creep). They have all the right sound for me- more power than some power metal bands, fast singing in a difficult language which naturally makes me try to sing it, distinct bass guitar I can hear almost all the time, fucking cool drum patterns, guitar solos are crafted to fit and not to show off and they utilize a ton of various ideas for songs like radio vocals, shamisen, amazing song building and some punk rock attitude at times.
Definitely an unique band, I will do what I can to see them live in the future.
Also I can't pick my favourite one ;_; they are all so wonderful

10 most astounding songs I've ever heard

These are not "the best" songs, although not far away from that term. These are the songs that absolutely blew my mind the first time I heard them. With one exception these were not the first song I've heard from that artist, so most of the time I knew what I was listening and I knew what to expect from the song.
But then the expectations were shattered, the song overwhelming me, stoping my life for those few minutes and leaving me speechless afterwards. Those are 10 songs that I recall that totally blew me away, often leaving me in tears and begging hard for relistens, despite being dangerous to my heart rate.

For the sake of this little fan article perhaps I should order them from 10 to 1, from the least shocking to the most but it's like comparing heart attacks. So maybe I'll order them from the first to the most recent instead.


10. Stratovarius- Elysium

Yes, let's start with the monster. After hearing multiple long, epic, everchanging power ballads from Sonata Arctica I thought in 2011 that no other long power metal track can blow me away, especially from Stratovarius, a band I believed back then was learning how to walk again after good but not amazing Polaris album. And then this happened, a three part monster that took a dump on everything Sonata made to this point and then added some more so that no other band could ever hope to match this song when it comes to power metal. Sadness, unsureness and hope presented by masterwork lyrics and Kotipelto's top vocals with several amazing solos here and there and the best outro ever recorded.

9. Litvintroll - Lipka

I ate my teeth on folk metal before 2013. Tons of Korpiklaani, Alestorm, Finntroll, Moonsorrow and Trollfest, Turisas and Wintersun to that point in time made me believe that I've heard the best there is in that subgenre of metal. Then comes a small, barely known band from Belarus and sings old folk song in Polish (I don't know the origins of the source song), blowing me away in the first 90 seconds with sad as fuck adaptation of that song, the bagpipes only adding a ton of sorrow to the already sad song sung by Andrei with sudden growl scream accompanied by a powerful guitar and keyboard solo closing the song. It was rare for keyboard solos to appear in folk metal and the mellow mood it set while closing the song was an absolute treat and perfection, making me tear up easily.
There are more bombastic folk metal songs than this one, but literally no one saw that coming from a little unknown band back then, and even though they disbanded it's still the best damn folk metal song I know, perfectly capturing that raw folk metal can be serious and powerful.

8. Dreamshade- Consumed Future

When I heard about Dreamshade for the first time I was at the age where I believed anything with -core in it's name can't be any good. I heard some metalcore and deathcore bands to this point, so when I heard  that there's a melodic metalcore/deathcore band from Switzerland that mixes some melodic death metal into their music I was VERY negative towards them when I looked them up on Youtube. And the first 13 seconds almost made me turn it off. "oh what a meaningful guitar intro, sooooo compleex, girls must be creaming themselves where listening to tha-......" and the moment I lost my voice was at the 14 second mark when the drums hit in heavily with a wall of sound made of perfectly in sync lead and rhythm guitar. Every transition bringing something new to the mix, changing the tempo and blowing me away even more. The build, the drums and the pure FURY in vocals made me an instant fan, ashamed as fuck of being negative towards it in the beginning. The slower and calmer outro felt like sloppy seconds after an intense orgasm. Afterwards I never judged a song just because of it's genre, I think. Except for thrash metal, but it's trash, huehueh.

7. Tuomas Holopainen - A Lifetime of Adventure

The only slow song on that list, it was magical when I heard it for the first time. Back then I still had somewhat mixed feelings towards Nightwish. I didn't hate them anymore, but sure as hell I thought they were heavily overrated. But when I heard my favourite finnish female vocalist was singing it I checked it out. And oh boy. I had the sweetest dreams for a week after hearing this song for the first time. I've never heard Johanna sing that softly before, the songwriting beats any movie score I've heard before, same with orchestrations. The lyrics capture perfectly the spirit of the Don Rosa's best comic and since I have treasured the The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck comic with an eleven bags of respect towards it's creator it truly felt like fiction coming to life, making it possible to feel it with other senses than sight. Absolutely wonderful.

6. Babymetal - Akatsuki

2014, a year when if You wanted to have more metalhead friends than before you just had to scream "I hate Babymetal". I've never hated them, since the beginning they were a fresh idea in a metal world, and their contribution to power metal was a very welcome surprise. But before buying the album I still thought of them as more of a gimmick than a real band. All of their songs were very silly, over the top and the vocal talent of Suzuka Nakamoto was still hidden behind 2 other girls. A sixteen years old girl, totally blowing me (away. Not talking about blowjobs from my 16yo ex girlfriend). Damn my jokes on this blog are hitting the rock bottom. Anyway, Akatsuki is the most serious song on the album, with beautiful and poetic-as-fuck lyrics and Su-metal is singing solo, sending shivers down my spine in the intro, just before the guitars enter the scene. When the chorus hits with that hellish drum warmachine and orchestrations and "even after thousand nights this love shall survive..." it broke me. And it only gets better after that, the vocals keep making my nerves thrash from orgasmic spams and the song tricks me with the slower parts making me think "oh, I think it's over.." and then going fast again and again. As expected from that band the outro is powerful and sudden, not giving a fuck about your heart rate.

me during Akatsuki

5. Stratovarius- My Eternal Dream

Oh look, a Strato fanboy that throws 2 songs of theirs on the list and not a single Galneryus song.. The truth is after the amazing Nemesis album I did not expect Stratovarius to top it with Eternal. And they didn't, actually. But the single to promote the Eternal album took me by surprise, I did not expect to hear one of the best power metal songs after like 12 years of daily doses of power metal. It's three times shorter than Elysium, goes straight to the point and the perfectly directed visuals of the music video make it ten times more meaningful and powerful. Fast tempo, the most extreme keyboard solo I've ever heard and the picture of the dying solider, spewing blood and a kid trying to save him with his own shirt hits hard as fuck. The last image and sound of hope perfectly close the song and the video. If You ever want to introduce someone to Stratovarius music then this song is the perfect choice.

4. Omnium Gatherum- Frontiers

The holy grail of 2016. Finally a song that captures everything that's beautiful in melodic death metal. Their previous album Beyond had a huge impact on my life as it was my crutch in the hard times in 2013-2014 and I was honestly scared that I'll be disappointed with the next Omnium Gatherum release. This song made the fear go away, and for those few minutes made my life right. Everything I did to that point in my life felt like the right choice. Me being a fan of this band made me feel for those few minutes complete, something not a single exgirlfriend of mine made me feel. It's the absolutely perfect melodic death metal song. We have a warmup, the heavy and fast juice with growls, headbanging, slower and instrumental bridge, singalong and softer chorus with absolutely outstanding keyboard background, an easy to follow structure that after second chorus goes to clean vocals, soft parts with keys and tears in eyes, goes back to a chorus and leaves the outro to a lead guitar and the solo. The solo that shuts mouths. So you can listen to the choir "Frontiers..." one last time. This is beyond mastery, it's virtuosity of melodic death metal.

3. Titanium - Delusive Skies

or as I like to call it The Life and Times of Frania Srania. Karol Mania's best song ever, that made me check again if I listen to the same album and band. I don't like to say "epic" when talking about music but it's just here, the most epic and powerful usage of background choirs in the chorus of this song and Konstantin Naumenko's (Koncio Nomnomko's) absolutely stunning vocal performance blew me away, along with the bells. More bells in power metal, now, please. This song also proved that the change on vocals was neccessary for the band to progress. There's just no way in heaven or hell for the previous vocalist to sing nearly as good as Koncio did here. This song was a ravine that separated a world class vocalist from a mediocre one.
Also not a single previous Titanium song could prepare you for this monster. And the whole song is about a bad weather on a trip.. Sadly it's still not available to the public outside of imported cds from Japan.

2. Insomnium- Winter's Gate

well technically it's a one song. And one album

2016 sure was a fun year. Omnium Gatherum and Whispered released great albums and Insomnium in the meantime was talking with their publisher like:
- hey, our bassist wrote a short novel, we would like to publish it if possible
- hmm, allright, but make some music along with it, ok? Doesn't have to be a lot of songs, like an ep. or something
- sure, I bet we can squeeze at least one song out of this material

que the most absurdly outstanding tracks in the history of melodic death metal. A 40 minute long monster with cold-as-fuck atmosphere that's warmed by a little girl Síne hugging a big viking guy. No one in the world could expect a move like that, especially after the amazing previous album. Insomnium didn't have to do something as  good as this track, but I'm sure glad they did. There's everything in this song, hookers, thai boxing and blackjack. It's been over a year and I still cannot fully comprehend this track, maybe I'm just mentally challenged?

1. Persefone- Living Waves

This one is unique here, as it took me some time to fully understand what's it about. At first it was a extremely solid progressive melodic death song with a long break/build-up in the middle and weird outro. But after reading the lyrics I understood it's some kind of a self-control mantra/prayer, and that repeating the 'chorus' helps me calm myself down. The lack of emotion of the vocals in the beginning and the growls that scream about letting go of anger only add to the otherworldliness of this song.

Breathe every piece of the existence

And feel the entire universe inside of you

Evolution in compassion

Expanding boundaries where there are no more

Giving birth to a new way of being!!

I transcend

I flow

I am the ocean

I vibrate

Behold, the sound of a living

I transcend

I flow

I am the ocean

I vibrate

Behold, the sound of a living wave

I let go of anger

I let go of judgment

I let go of guilt

I let go of fear

I feel I'm nothing but a living wave

Those lyrics, the way they are sung and the very progressive sound all add up into this cosmic feeling that you should change for the better, discover something new, expand your boundaries, be something more. And don't write on your blog at 1 am again, because you start to write weird shit.


No links on the post because music is about exploring, so do some for once you lazy bastard. Also Titanium's song is impossible to find on Youtube. This is most likely my last post in 2017, thank You for another cool year and big, massive thanks to Anette Olzon and Nordheim for sharing their respectable album reviews and bringing more viewers here- it's been awhile since I was ashamed of the stupid shit I post here. Cheers!