The metal circus is coming to town!

This is my review for A New Dimension of Might by Trail of Tears, which I originally made for Encyclopaedia Metallum, AKA the Metal Archives. The original page can be found here

I don’t know why there isn’t a review for this album yet. Seriously, it blows my mind that such a small amount of people would get a chance to enjoy it yet. Metal purists may not have the taste for such a piece of work, since it is a black/gothic metal album with electrogothic elements. However, said elements work together to an advantage along with the traditional Beauty and the Beast vocal style (though Ronny, the growler, does quite a bit of clean singing himself, and he is a stronger presence than the clean female vocalist Catherine throughout the album).

The opener is the track “Ecstatic.” It basically is the start of a wonderful showcase of talents between the choir that is used throughout the entire album, and the female and male vocalists. The emotionlessness of the choir and their use of the same notes, strangely, fits nicely with the more emotive side of this album like a piece of the puzzle that adds a bit more colour to an already colourful image. And by “colourful image,” I mean something that is different than what you’d hear with a lot of extreme gothic metal combo bands, though it is not rare: the electrogothic and odd circus-like elements added to the music, which is put together in perfect harmony with the metal elements. Seriously, if there was a metal circus, A New Dimension of Might would probably be the soundtrack. Look out, Cirque de Soleil! (Could you imagine metalheads headbanging at a circus? Anyway, back to the music).

We’ll skip over to the tracks “Denial and Pride,” “The Call of Lust,” and, “Splendid Coma Visions,” because they show the strongest relation between the music and the vocals used. Devious, full of a lustful energy that gothic music is known to have (which the second title fits with well), and memorable, there’s not much left to be desired here. I couldn’t help but accidentally shout “die!” along to the constant electronically modified growls of “die!” several times that were placed in one section, to my mother’s horror (let’s just say she started thinking I was crazy for a moment there). However, let it be known that much of all of the growls aren’t modified, and only modified in very sparse amounts and in tasteful places, where it would belong.

Next, the Faith No More cover at the end, “Caffeine,” or as I have it, “Pista 10” (don’t know why there was that name change). If you’re a Mike Patton fan and even the experimentation above wouldn’t satisfy you, you might at least want to check out this cover. It shows that even a serious band like Trail of Tears can have a bit of fun with their music and still make it feel like a perfect fit even when they didn’t write the song themselves. Ronny does a great job with clean vocals in this track, and Catherine supports him well with backup vocals. It felt like a Faith No More song, but at the same time, and I know this is really fucking cliché, they “made it their own,” and it ended the album so perfectly. Patton would be proud.

Lastly, the tracks in between “Ecstatic” and “Denial and Pride” were quite exceptionally good, but they didn’t stand out to me as much as the ones listed. It’s a worthy album to purchase. 87% is a really high rating, coming from me, and I wouldn’t mind if anyone else reviewed this album with a higher rating, so long as they do it with good reason.

The Evanescence Imitations

Here's something quite interesting that I just noticed. Evanescence had an EP from 1997 called Evanescence. It was their first EP. Notice how Nightwish's album Once (2004) has a very, very similar cover.

Evanescence:

Once:

......... but it's all probably just a coincidence, right?

Now, here's something else I've noticed....

Evanescence's "Lithium" (2006)

Within Temptation album cover of "The Heart of Everything" (2007):

Same look. Coincidence? You decide!

Now for videos-only. Here we go again:

Evanescence "Bring Me To Life" (2002)

Within Temptation "What have you done" (2007) and "Stand my ground" (2006)

My, the Evanescence imitations don't end here, but if I had to continue further, I'd make myself sick. And probably, you too.

The power of friendship in gothic music

I've said it already; I'm a big goth metal/rock fan. Both gothic subgenres have many things in common, with the exception of goth rock being a lighter alternative, but there's something else I've noticed recently: friendship and romance. They seem to power the subgenres almost wholly, more than any other kind of music I've listened to. Attributes that often characterize this are "beauty and the beast" vocals, duetic & romantic vocals, and lyrics that are depedent on the strength of the friendship of the writers. In this report, I'm going to use several bands as examples of the attributes I listed.

Beauty and the Beast
The "true" definition for beauty and the beast vocals is vague with some aspects, but the aspect of a female/male duet remains true. The female vocals usually give a more submissive stance, and are usually clean, while the male vocals tend to be harsh or clean with an admissive stance. However, this is not true for all goth bands. A band that goes against this is Lacuna Coil.
B&B bands: Sirenia, Tristania, Lacuna Coil, Epica

Duetic and Romantic Vocals
This goes hand-in-hand with Beauty and the Beast, but I thought it would be good to list it since there are some gothic bands who don't seem too "beastly," or enough so much that I'd consider that they have such vocals. In this more romantic stance, the female leads tend to be classically trained. Remember, gothic music has a pretty good connection to more classical music. A good example would be the songs with male vocals from Evanescence that aren't from the albums Fallen or The Open Door. The only song that they ever made that had B&B vocals was Lies from Origin. Yes, they did have music before those albums.
D&R bands: Lacuna Coil, "pre-Fallen" Evanescence, Within Temptation (went from goth metal to goth rock with metal influences), Epica, Nemesea.

The Strength of Friendship Between Writers
The strength of the friendship that lyricists of goth bands have with each other is immense, so much so that it elevates them to whole other levels, musically. A good example of this is the incident that happened with Evanescence. To sum it down to the core: when Ben Moody and Amy Lee were really close, that's when they made the best music together. However, when they separated and made music on their own, the music just sounded so plastic; so fake.
Strength of friendship: Lacuna Coil, Evanescence, Within Temptation

I hope you enjoyed my little report!

ROCK ON TO '08! Stay close to your friends and family on this fine night.

Reflections on "Popular" Music and Artists

I am listening to the Top Hits of 2007, and the first thing I notice is that out of the compendium of 98 songs, a solid majority of them follow the same tune and pattern, related to each other's works.

Kanye's and 50 Cent's techno-vibrations behind a few spewed, forced, and uncreative rhymes, which the new age, futuristic beats make up for or completely hide. There was an obvious trend toward Timbaland-sounding productions, and it is important to note that he was behind a lot of the top hits. Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, and OneRepublic just to name a few. Chris Brown, with Kiss Kiss, and Britney Spears with Gimme More followed suite with this sound. Instead of putting emphasis on the lyrics, these hits seem to do away with them all together, focusing the listener on who can come up with the most unique, techno-convoluted beats. Anyways, back to Kanye and 50 Cent - I don't think any two artists have bigger ego-trips than these two, or rather, there aren't too many more artists out there that are so egotistical in their music. We have P. Diddy, but he didn't make the list, which is surprising, but I think his songs are for crap. He will oversee a hundred artists, put them on his label, and all of them will have the same look, style, and voice. The women will be sexed-up poster ads for the "ghetto fabulous", and the guys will all have half-naked girls in their videos, speaking of "booty" and "partying" and "mazaratis" with "30 inch rims".

Speaking of "booty", you have tracks like "This Is Why I Am Hot" by MIMS and "Crank That (Soulja Boy)", "Lean Like A Cholo", and "Party Like A Rockstar", which all basically speak of one thing. Their lyrics are horrendous. I imagine that them and their little posse and "gangster" friends sit down, search their puny minds for something to say, try to find words that "match" (I emphasize this, because some of them have really bad rhyming skills and they go with words that "just go"), and then put them together like third-graders putting together Mickey Mouse puzzles, and say them with a little tinge of the voice, a little lofty melody in the background, and "tada!" you have your number one hit.

Alright, moving on. Fergie, of course. Rihanna, Taylor Swift. All rather annoying, but they created songs that personally are "catchy". They made songs that play on FM radio like its no one's business, and thus everyone's business. However, going back to OneRepublic.....their song, Apologize, in collaboration with Timbaland, had the record for the number one played hit on the radio.

Don't get me started on "Hey There Delilah". I love that song, but I can only take so much of it. Perhaps, because me, like my fellow teenagers, have an attention span of about ten minutes maximum. We constantly want to hear new songs, new tunes. A track that was released last month is seen as old "old".

Anyways, take a look at the hits this year. You have The Killers, Mika, The Fratellis, The Arctic Monkeys, Paul McCartney, Reba, Kelly Clarkson, and even foreign artists. I will have to admit. I like alot of these artists, and I don't care if they are mainstream or "sell-outs" or "posers" (with the exception of Avril Lavigne....really don't like her music). I really don't care. Green Day was on the list with their adaptation of "Working Class Hero" by John Lennon. I love Green Day.

So, what do you think?

Octavia Sperati

Octavia Sperati is definitely one of my top 5 favourite bands, and not solely for the fact that they are a successful female-dominant metal band, but for the fact that they have not fallen into the "happy-times" (Ex. After Forever) metal trap. They've remained true to themselves from the beginning to the present, they're honest, they stick to traditional doom-goth music without denying who they are, and they're unique. When you hear them on the radio (which you'd probably rarely hear), you don't confuse them for any other band. And it's not just 1 person that you focus on when you watch one of their videos (Ex. Within Temptation and After Forever).... Every member is equally important.

Here's the latest from OS: Moonlit

Moonlit

Add to My Profile More Videos

I suggest you guys go out and buy their album Grace Submerged. A great gift for yourself. Who says we can't be a little selfish at times? I plan on buying it within the next few days!

Support the ladies of metal, and as the saying in doom goes.... STAY SLOW!

http://www.octavia-sperati.com/
www.myspace.com/octaviasperati

Gothic Metal

As some may know, I'm a very big fan of the Gothic Metal genre. My favourite GM bands include, but are not limited to, Imperia, Tristania, Epica, Lacuna Coil, Charon, and, well, about a million others.

I found this really awesome page on GM, and it really depicts it all perfectly. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

General Description

Gothic metal is a genre of heavy metal music that originated during the mid 1990s in Europe as an outgrowth of doom-death, a fusion genre of doom metal and death metal.

The definition of gothic metal is commonly debated amongst fans and the media; older fans and musicians have a firm concept of the genre and its characteristics, having been around through its growth and evolution, having strict ideas of what bands pertain to the genre and what bands don't. Newer fans reject this categorization as limiting, useless or wrong, often claiming bands are gothic metal that do not meet the criteria of the older fans

Music

Gothic metal is sometimes considered a broad genre in the way it sounds due to a lack of a centralised ideology in regards to this aspect of the music. The genre is mainly defined by its composition and its aesthetics, leaving individual bands to provide their own artistic interpretations of what to include and/or leave out. The only prerequisite characteristics of the music are the genres use of dual vocalists, keyboards and acoustic guitars.

Gothic metal tends to take influence from the doom metal, black metal, and death metal subgenres of Heavy metal for its composition, heavily synthesizing the styles of their melody and rhythm ideas in its guitar riffs, often causing the music to be aggressive and fast paced. Acoustic guitars are sometimes present in gothic metal, with bands that feature two guitarists, one guitarist is often found playing a form of acoustic guitar. The acoustic guitar is used in the same way as its electronic counterpart, and is normally found playing melodies of equal technicality. The bass guitar in gothic metal is usually played using lower tones akin to doom metal, often combined with the aggressive playing of black and death metal. The bass guitar is often the main contributor to the atmosphere in songs, though has also been seen as performing a duet with the keyboarding in this regard.

Keyboards in gothic metal play a significant role in the music, often replacing the second guitarist in bands and taking on the role of either lead or rhythm. The keyboards are often used to imitate a variety of instruments, most often string and wind instruments, though this varies between artists.

Gothic metal makes heavy use of atmospheres in its music, which are commonly tailored to fit the song; warm and energetic, empty and enclosing. The atmosphere rarely follows the deep morbidity of doom metal unlike its origin/offspring, doom-death/gothic-doom, or the upbeat nature of closely related genre, symphonic metal. The use of the atmospherics is often to draw the listener into the music, as if to give them a sense of being involved with what is happening in the song.

Lyrical themes

Lyrically, gothic metal is centered around romances and fantasy tales that end in tragedy for one or more parties involved. The setting for the lyrics are most often in the New Age or the Dark Ages, but can also be in Victorian, Edwardian, Roman, or modern eras. The romantic- and fantasy-themed lyrics often used in gothic metal cover many broad subjects and are intended as being themes and guides to the lyricist, rather than a complete prerequisite of the genre. Gothic Metal bands typically do not write their albums in the form of separate songs; they rather write concept albums in the form of books. This is so that each song acts as a part, or, chapter, inspiring people to listen to the whole album in order to hear the story, instead of just certain songs. Penumbra's Seclusion and Silentium's Sufferion - Hamartia of Prudence are two gothic metal albums that prominently feature this style of lyrics.

Gothic metal bands normally have two vocalists, (also known as "Beauty and the Beast" vocals). One vocalist is typically male and uses vocals akin to black or death metal. The other vocalist is usually female, and often uses soprano vocals, or harmonic singing. Sometimes bands will use other forms of vocals included with the two prior vocalists, including (but not limited to) female death/black vocals, choirs, Gregorian chanting and male singing, but this tends to be limited to backing vocals and their thematic use within the song.

History

Origins (1983-1993)

Celtic Frost, although considered by many as an early black metal band, also played a semi-important role in the development of doom-death, due to their use of "gothic-sounding" atmospherics.

In the 1990s, a group of young bands in Northern England borrowed from the early gothic rock sound of the 1980s and incorporated it with the slow, down-tuned guitar dirges of Black Sabbath and similar doom metal bands. Doom-death, as it was known, was the first stage of the gothic-doom subgenre and the gothic-metal genre. Bands most notable for this style included Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema.

Although death metal and black metal were two of the larger genres of metal at this time, especially in the Scandinavian region, many bands who started in either genre had progressed more toward doom-death styles; two of these bands were Moonspell and Theatre of Tragedy.

While early doom-death bands Paradise Lost and Anathema used some female vocals in their music, the Netherland's The Gathering was the first doom-death band with a leading female singer, Marike Groot on the album Always... and then Martine Van Loon on Almost a Dance (both later replaced by another female singer, Anneke van Giersbergen). This set a pattern for gothic metal by adding the first implications of using two vocalists in the bands, which later became a signature of gothic metal as it was quickly imitated by bands including Tristania and Theatre of Tragedy.

Gothic Metal (1993-present)

Gothic metal originated in the early 1990s with bands such as Tristania and Therion taking the doom-death sound that had arisen and making romantically-themed music that borrowed from black metal's and death metal's guitar and vocal styles. These bands left behind some of the depressing nature and gothic rock elements of their origins to add more warm and classical elements into the music.

A softer genre known as symphonic metal had evolved in the mid- to late- 1990s from gothic metal bearing strong similarities to its predecessor, with bands led by female singers. During this time the divide between gothic metal and the new born symphonic metal became apparent; symphonic metal maintained a simpler approach, with more operatic and classical themes, while gothic metal incorporated more aggressive elements of death metal and black metal directly into the music, adding more technically complex melodies and rhythms into its music. Trail of Tears (band) and Penumbra (band) heading this last known progression in the music.

The gothic metal scene is currently very developed in Europe and Scandinavia, most notably in England, France, Norway and the Netherlands, and is growing rapidly in Germany. Much of the scene's core fan base has developed itself in England and France, with many of the bands coming from the Scandinavian region. Several groups of smaller bands are also emerging in eastern Europe and South America, struggling to gain a foothold where the scene is small.

Gothic Doom (1997-present)

In the late 1990s-2000 bands within the gothic metal genre had become somewhat prominent, and the genre symphonic metal had begun to emerge from it. At this point, several bands started to go the opposite path to symphonic metal for their, adding highly morbid themes, slowing down to a more slow-paced aggression akin to gothic metal, and began to abandon the Beauty And The Beast vocals that had become part of the gothic metal genre.

During this period, a boom of new bands occurred. These bands combined aspects directly from early 90s gothic metal with aspects of various forms of doom metal. Bands such as Chalice, Draconian (band), Even Vast, and Left Hand Solution all released albums or produced demo's at this time. These bands used various elements of gothic metal and doom metal in varied and undefined methods. This included the romantic lyrics and instrument usage with morbid atmospheres and slow, droning guitar work. These bands also often found inspiration from doom-death bands, often utilizing the same gothic rock mannerisms found in doom-death almost subconsciously. These new bands, with their morbid sound and nature, and noticeable gothic metal elements, were often debated as being gothic metal or doom metal, before finally being settled on as being 'gothic-doom'.

In the early 2000s another boom happened, many bands that were now considered gothic-doom released their first or second albums, with many more bands producing demo's. This second rush of bands and albums now emphasized parts of doom metal and gothic metal by melding aspects of the genres together. Lyrical themes of the genres were melded together, as were the guitaring, keyboarding, and atmoshperic styles of the genres.

Currently, gothic-doom is a widespread scene, with no centralized fan base or origins of bands. Gothic-doom's fanbase mostly tends to be fans heavily into gothic metal and/or doom metal, and currently lacks any major recognition beyond its borrowed stardom.

TAKEN FROM: http://metal-videos.blogspot.com/2007/03/gothic-metal.html

The music that inspires you

Everyone's got "their song," "their album," "their band," so on and so forth. Whether the music touches them in a spiritual sense, makes them want to dance, makes them relax or focus, or makes them see things in an introspective manner, there is always something in their brain that tells them "this appeals to me." And, with modern mainstream (the popular) music being absolute shit in my opinion, I can't help but wonder what purpose such music serves to our generation.

My questions are as follows:

1. What kind of music do you listen to?
2. Do you put an emphasis on lyrics as being most important, music being most important, or both?
3. Do you read the lyrics to all/most of the songs you listen to on a regular basis?
4. What does the music you listen to inspire you to do?

Rammstein - Amerika

I was just watching this video called Amerika by the German industrial rock act Rammstein, and I must say, this time, they haven't completely got me. Well, I don't mean that as in I don't understand the video, because I understand it damn well. I mean... there's some stuff in there that they claim to be part of American traditions that I don't feel really are.

Here's the video:


Here's the lyrics translated into English:

"[CHORUS]:
We're all living in Amerika
Amerika ist wunderbar
we're all living in Amerika
Amerika
Amerika

Do you want me?
(no I don't)
Do you need me?
(No I don't)
Dance with me I'm leading?
(No I can't)
Will you love me?
(No I won't)

This is not a love song
(No it's not)
I don't sing my mother tounge
(No I don't)
Afrika for Santa Claus
Und vor Paris steht Mickey Maus

[CHORUS]

Will you do it?
(No I won't)
Should you do it?
(No I don't)
Could you do it?
(No I can't)
Will you please me?
(No I won't)

If you don't want me
(You'll get hurt)
If you don't need me
(You'll get hurt)
If you don't love me
(You'll get hurt)
Fuck you is the magic word

[CHORUS]

We're all living in Amerika
Coca Cola, Wonderbra
We're all living in Amerika
Amerika
Amerika

This is not a love song
No, this is not a love song
This is how we do it
You'll get hurt
Fuck you is the sweetest word

[CHORUS]

We're all living in Amerika
Coca Cola, sometimes war
we're all living in Amerika
Amerika"

So, here's what I don't agree with about Amerika:

Last I checked, Santa Claus wasn't American, and neither is 80% of the modern interpretation of him. Look up Santa Claus on Answers.com. It will tell you that he was from Asia Minor, specifically Turkey, which is in the Middle-East. That's right, Santa Claus is as Middle-Eastern as.... well, me. Not only is he Middle Eastern in true origin, but the modern-day interpretation of Santa Claus is based on Sinterklaas, who was a character that's quite popular in the Netherlands and Belgium, as the article entails. Don't believe Wikipedia? Look anywhere else.

Next, the part about Wonderbras being made in America. Though the product was actually trademarked in America, it was made here in Canada, which I think should be taken into account. But seriously, I'd like to ask... what's so great about showing off your tits?

Apart from that, really, I'm not going to argue the song. Okay, maybe the "sometimes war" bit, because to say that America has had significantly more wars than every other country would be a bit silly, don't you think?

I know this song is old, but I just wanted to put my opinion on it out there, especially since it brought back great old memories.

What do you think about America's effect on the world? What do you think Rammstein is trying to get out?

What was the best CD you ever bought?

I'm sitting here at my desk and it's 6:12PM. What to do? Write on Blogspot, ofcourse! So, I want to know from you... What was the best CD you ever bought? Why?

Personally, the best CD I ever bought was Disclaimer 2 by Seether, and not for the musical skill it took to write the music, but the lyrics really connected with me. You see, when I got that album, I was going through a lot in my life that nothing could help me with. But when I played Disclaimer 2, and when I really listed to what Shaun (Seether's lead singer and lead guitarist) had to say on that album, I just thought, "man, that guy really understands what's going on in my life. Now I know what to do and what not to do to change things." And here I am, remaining in better condition than I was prior to hearing the album.