I decided to give the new album a listen straight away. My love for On The Backs Of Angels hadn’t diminished in the slightest. Great song. Then comes along BMUBMD. A Caught In A Web clone that starts with Linkin Park-esque drum beats. I instantly recoiled. DT always has a song like this on their albums. The latest ones being Constant Motion and A Rite Of Passage. I love both these songs. This one is too much of a conscious effort to make a song like that, which is more accessible to the n00bs. Not too crazy about Rudess’ use of orchestral beats in the main riff either.

I got over that fairly quickly as the next song Lost, But Not Forgotten is a Prog-Metal Classic. It’s an unpredictable song in which you feel anything can happen. The only thing you can be sure of is that it is going to kick ass. It could be one of the greatest pure prog metal songs ever. Has a sprinkling of power metal thrown in too in the kick-drumming of the chorus.

This Is The Life next. A beautiful ballad with a nice dose of heaviness which further adds to the epicness and also contributes to the grand melody, bringing about a moving crescendo in its climax.

I was then met with utter shock in the next song. A sonic scene is being set by Wizard Rudess. Then… Out of nowhere…. BUUUUUUURRRRRPPPPP! Did I just hear a belch in a hallowed Dream Theater song. To hit home the fact that I wasn’t imagining things, it happens again. It destroyed the whole album for me. I started yearning for Mike to return. He must have added quality control to proceedings. Everything else became academic. At this point, I started feeling tired. It got to the last song and I heard water drops, signifying the last song, Beneath The Surface. I thought, just as I was about to fall asleep, there’s Rudess again with his stupid sound effects. PUT YOUR iPad AWAY Rudess!!! Stop destroying DT albums!!! He’s not a wizard anymore, he’s a nutty professor. He just needs the prosthetic obesity and he would be there.

What were they thinking? Nutters. LaBrie says at one point in the track by track lowdown that Rudess was playing all sorts of different sounds and they would go let’s use this, not so much that. Surely someone from the DT camp, anyone, must have thought, “That sounds like a post-Burger King Belch” or something. How many times will they have listened to this album? Did they not ever wince like I do every single time I hear the beginning of this song? I can only think that them being locked away in the studio, away from civilisation, so focused on their craft, that the belch-esque sample was overlooked in their adamant view that it sounds accurately like a Shaman. Numbnuts! I’m going to have to edit it out myself now. It takes years off my life the more I hear those burps.

The next few days, I endeavoured to give the album another run through as they still are Dream Theater, my most favourite band in all the world. I wasn’t going to throw in the towel after 14 years of being entranced by their music. On 2nd listen, Build Me Up…still makes me breakdown in frustration in it’s lameness. But Bridges In The Sky, take away the burps and you have an absolutely amazing song. Brilliant vocal melodies, musicianship, everything. Which can also be said about the rest of the songs, especially the other 2 epics, Outcry and Breaking All Illusions. Rudess stops pissing about enough to remember the special chemistry he has with Petrucci and come up with some killer instrumental passages. Myung steps in too with some cool bass interludes. Like all the albums that have gone before it, DT have further honed their craft and added to their canon with more riches. I can’t wait to see those songs live.

But the two I didn’t like at the beginning, I still don’t like. BMUBMD and Beneath The Surface. The end of the chorus of BTS feels like LaBrie is trying to cram in too many syllables. The beginning of the song makes me want to go for a wee, those damn water drops. So when I listen to the album I will delete track 2 and 9 from the playlist. The other 7 are of the utmost highest quality. Without those two songs, the album may be a less palatable experience for the newcomer but it is prog heaven for the seasoned DT fan. It also becomes their best album yet, which is standard for them as they get better with every release. I am going to pretend those two songs don’t exist. they are the only 2 songs that I don’t like from DT. I never thought it would happen but it has. I’m going to have to take each day as it comes. I’ve just listened to BMUBMD or (BUM BUMMED) as I will now call it, and it still sucks ass. When I first realised that I didn’t like 2 DT songs from their new album. It questioned my whole personality. I thought to myself, am I becoming the person I despise: the one who abandons his interests for what is easily accessible. What some people call growing up. I thought am I getting too old for this shit? I am happy to announce that after getting to know this album better, I love DT as much as ever. Prog forever. Thank, Christ.

I hope to listen to Skyfire’s EP Fractal after this.  Then I will put on Obscura’s latest one, Cosmogenesis.  I put it on on the way to work one day and never got past the first song.  Put one of their songs on my Broadening playlist and was impressed enough to want to check them out again one day.  I hope to get that done again if I don’t get too tired.

Centaurus-A sure do cram a lot into their songs.  Loads of riffs.

Once Obscura has finished I will put on either some Anaal Nathrakh or Mars Volta.  Maybe both if I can stay awake.  I do want to go to the gym tomorrow morning.  Not likely but the intention is there.  There’s a part on Centaurus A’s Dripping Red Canvas that reminds me briefly of DT’s Space Dye Vest.  The chords only.  It changes into a cool solo that fades out.  They have a bit of a Sikth feel to them in some of their riffs, reminiscent of their debut The Trees Are Dead And Dried Out, Waiting For Something Wild.  Not enough to be plagiaristic though.    Protest The Hero are another band that have ripped off the Sikth sound.  They don’t have the charisma of Sikth though.

Oh! Sikth broke up last year.  Shame that.  I thought they could have been the new Dream Theater.  The British version anyway.  A couple of them have gone off to other bands, Mikee to Sad Season, Pin to The Void Within.  SS didn’t sound up to much, like he was trying to do a Glenn Danzig impression.  Haven’t heard Void Within yet, still listening to C-A.  Justin Hill and Dan Weller have formed their own production company.  Boring.  Talented guitarist that Dan is, letting that go to waste.  Bleh.

03:12 edit:  Lasted this long.  Finished listening to Skyfire and Obscura.  After reading a review of Trivium’s Shogun, thought I would check that out.  Seems ok but too tired to finish listening to the album.  Up to track 3.  Off to bed I go, goodnight.

They had more talent than Nirvana but were somehow overshadowed by them.  As were Soundgarden.  Forget Pearl Jam and Nirvana, Soundgarden and AIC were the best bands in the 90s Grunge movement.

Jar of Flies was the album where AIC finally let fly with their creative chops.  Not a bad song on it.

Haven’t brought myself to listen to Facelift yet.  Bought it dead cheap from Music Zone ages ago, before they went under (administration not Australia).  Haven’t listened to it all the way through.  Perhaps another trip to the CD box is in the offing to rip it onto good old iTunes.

http://www.centaurus-a.de/new/releases.php

The music you use during a treadmill ideally needs to have a constant tempo, so you can synchronise your running speed with the rhythm.  This helps to relieve the pain you are exerting upon yourself through strenuous exercise.  I was listening to To-Mera whilst on the treadmill yesterday and although I was blown away by the music, it wasn’t happening for me altogether as I still had a mind on the physical exertion in the slower jazzier parts.  You don’t want to be relaxed whilst running you want to be psyched up.  I have found that the best album with which to ignore the pain and keep a good running rhythm is Sagas by Equilibrium.  I am going to be going on about this band for many reasons, so get used to it.

Sagas is an incredible album.  The music is complex yet catchy and the Black Metal vocals aren’t too imposing on the mix, enabling you to fully appreciate the majesty of the music.  There is also a constant rhythm for long parts of the songs in the album.  Couple this with the sublime melodies and you have a potent painkiller.  Blut Im Auge is one of the most effective songs on the album.  The soaring melody at the beginning that runs through most of the song is enough to make you feel like you can win wars armed only with a sword.  The galloping melodies in the chorus also helps to keep the energy levels up, which makes me think that Iron Maiden would possibly make good Gym music.

Another good album for gym music is Symbolic by Death.  It keeps a constant speed and is heavy as fuck, yet catchy as well, including Chuck’s vocals.  When I was running round Liverpool, before I stopped being a tight arse and invested in a gym memebrship, Morbid Angel was a great fix.  I will have to compare the results of them to my Equilibrium high.

Give Sagas a go whilst having a run and enjoy the invincibility it brings.

To-Mera.  Damn, these guys are something else.  They are on the verge of being better than Epica.  And that is saying something.  However, I would say that Epica have more catchy melodies.  To-Mera are much more free-form, which gives them an edge.  Lead Singer Julie Kiss of To-Mera has got just as beautiful a voice as Sonia, perhaps lacking the power slightly of Simone Simons of Epica.  Both are pretty cute.  To-Mera are epic.  Just heard some nice organ that preceded a heavy as shit riff.  Then a tranquil vocal part with some soft keys and guitar.  wow.  Frakking ultra-talented these guys.  And best of all, they are British.  I love it when British bands turn out to be good.  Like It Bites, Dragonforce, Frost*, Threshold.  I used to hear British Prog Metal and it seemed to lack the complexity of our American friends.  Not anymore.

Talking of our American friends, the second female-fronted Prog band I have had the privilege to come across this week is LA-based band Echoes of Eternity.  I stumbled upon them by chance by looking through the news section of Blabbermouth.net.  Pretty good news site, just ignore the immature comments below each news item.  The report told of EOE’s new album that is produced by ex-Machine Head Logan Mader.  Sounded promising and on the news item there was a video of an EOE song called Voices in a Dream.  The song takes off when you hear the vocals for the first time.  At first, they don’t seem to fit and it’s all a bit bewildering.  But then the catchy chorus kicks in and you get used to the unique aura of Francine Boucher’s unique vocals (and get hypnotised by her beautiful figure as well, if you are watching the video, that is).  It is like hearing an angel sing over Death.  It shouldn’t work but it does because the music and vocal melodies are so strong.  Very well composed.  I’ve read a lot of reviewers dismiss this band.  Totally unjust.  Their new album will be awesome I’m sure after this great debut.  Caught some footage of them playing Voices in a Dream live.  It’s even better.  Francine has a great presence on stage and everything fits into place with the whole band.  Hope they come to the UK soon.

To-Mera are mental.  Still listening to Delusions, their latest album.  Some crazy musicianship going on.  Bloody hell.

That playlist didn’t help either.  My friend did me a massive Black Metal disc with dozens of bands on and so they comprised a sizable chunk of the playlist.  It’s like Equilibrium triggered something within me from when I was 16 that has been somewhat dormant in the last few years.

I’ve got so much into it again that I listened to an old favourite of mine that I haven’t listened to all the way through for a good few years – Cradle of Filth’s Dusk and Her Embrace.  What an outstanding album!  The complexity of the music is verging on the progressive and Dani’s lyrics paint such a vivid and grotesque picture.  I still remembered a fair chunk of the lyrics as i had memorised and researched parts when I was a teenager.  Wanted to see if it was all his work or if he had cut and pasted chunks from other authors.  From what I gathered, it’s all his own work, using mythological horror tales as a foundation.  Listening to Funeral in Carpathia again nearly made me cry.  Despite the lewdness of it in parts, it is a rather tragic love story at its core.  There’s a slower part in the middle of all the tremendously fast parts where he is mourning the loss of his love in his own special satanic way.  Despite the devilish vocabulary, the loss still hits home.

iTunes has just moved from OMC to Omnium Gatherum.  I saw them when they supported Dark Tranquility in Liverpool.  Last year, I think.  They were ok then but this song called Nail is pretty good.  Nice guitar harmonies and melody acting as a counterpoint to the gruff vocals.

OMC= Old Man’s child.  I’m enjoying them.  Got most of their albums so have a lot to get through as they started in the mid-90s and Galder is quite a prolific chap despite his main gig being rather demanding in itself.

I want to spend more time with Limbonic Art, Sigh, bit of Immortal and listen to This Cold Existence, as I enjoyed what I heard of them on the playlist.  But for now, a bit of To-Mera.  Their latest one called Delusions.  Damn, they some complicated shit, yo.

I’ll have to get more acquainted with Satyricon as well.  They are headlining one of the nights at Bloodstock.  Woh, blast beats on To-Mera.  Can’t get away from them, can I?  But I do love ‘em.  Then a bit of jazz.  It’s great when bands shift genres like that within songs.  I’m moving into Prog Metal, so I’ll end this one now.

I was stuck in a rut.  A very nice rut admittedly.  I was only listening to the same couple of albums every day, week by week.  The new Dream Theater one, of course; Equilibrium’s album from last year, “Sagas”, one of the greatest albums ever made (more about them on another post).  Those two were getting listened to to death.  I would occasionally deviate and put on some Death (symbolic mostly), Scar Symmetry, Andromeda, Sonata Arctica or Seventh Wonder.  But these were bands that I was already playing to death.  I decided that I needed to branch out like I have done in the past.

I went through my iTunes library and picked out a song from each band I hadn’t heard before and put it in a new playlist called Broadening.  One thing you need to understand is that I’m a 29-year old man and work full-time.  I have a couple of hours to play with in the evening before bedtime and another day of work beckoning.  This was the best I could do.  I know it takes more than one song to get to know a band.  But it can take just that one song to get you hooked cayn’t it?

I must say, it was a very worthwhile experience.  There were 76 bands on that list and a large portion of them I really digged in that 2-evening listening session.  Here’s a list of some that impressed me:

• The Cold Existence – Black Metal band from Sweden
• Falchion – Viking Metal band from Finland, turns out I had been to see them in Manchester last year and I dug them then too
• Forbidden – 80s Thrash Metal band with an entertaining lead singer and a pair of technically-gifted shredders
• Grayceon –  San Franciscan band with a cello player
• The Gathering – Female-fronted Goth Metal band.  Lead singer has also sung for Ayreon, that’s where I know her from.
• To-Mera – Another female-fronted band, except more in the Progressive Metal mould.  With a bit of Black Metal and other tasty morsels thrown in as well.
• Old Man’s Child – Galder’s (Dimmu Borgir guitarist) love-child.  Listening to their new album Slaves of the World, as i type.

There were so many other bands that i appreciated on that playlist and I’m sure I will mention them all in the coming posts.

So, fellow MetalHeads, if you are ever bored or feel you are listening to the same 2 or 3 albums over and over, even if they are bloody amazing, don’t neglect the hidden gems that may be residing in your iTunes Library and be grateful for the friends who had the foresight to think you might like them.  I know I am.