Battle of the Bands: Swedish vs. Finnish Melodeath.

In the past year, I've really come to enjoy melodic death metal. It's riddled with paradoxes. Musically, it's beautiful, yet crushingly heavy--like power metal, but more "power"ful. Heh. Unlike garden-variety death metal, it pioneers the art of the awesome guitar solo, pumping out compositions that can rival those of classic metal. Lyrically, it tends to be fascinating, from introspection on the human condition to fantasy/mythology to epic fishing to Wintersun. Arguably an improvement over the cheesiness power metal can aspire to, and certainly over ultra-gory death metal lyrics that could have been penned by a disturbed twelve-year-old boy.

Melodic death metal (MDM) bands hail from all over the world--Anterior in the UK, Eluveitie in Switzerland, Nightrage from Greece, or Universum from Australia. I actually don't have any from America, though apparently they exist. But undoubtedly the throne of melodic death metal is Scandanavia--specifically Sweden and Finland (Norway tends more towards black metal). Which takes me to a quick history lesson.

MDM got started in the mid 1990s in Sweden. The new trend of death metal had caught on there with bands like Carnage, Dismember, and Unleashed--you can tell they were pretty typical death metal fare just from the names. Then something new happened. In 1995-96, In Flames, At the Gates, and Dark Tranquillity all released landmark albums that changed the face of death metal. They dropped the gore-obsessed lyrics of their forebears and changed their sound from death metal's earlier extreme thrashiness to something more akin to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal of 15 years earlier. This became known as the "Gothenburg sound" (after the bands' hometown) and quickly became a successful and popular (for death metal) side genre.

This, then, is the Gothenburg sound. Interweaving twin-guitar melodies, brutal-yet-catchy riffs, amazing guitar solos, and often a mixture of clean vocals along with the usual "cookie monster" style. To me, no band has embodied it better than In Flames. (Their earlier albums; they're tending more toward alternative metal nowadays, but it's still good) Other exemplars include the similar Soilwork, Viking band Amon Amarth, or the rather interesting Scar Symmetry. I highly recommend all of those bands.

Before long, MDM had the world's attention--and nowhere more so than Sweden's neighbor Finland. Before long they had hacked out a sizeable place in the growing scene, with usual Finnish style. (i.e. lots of keyboards) Its influence comes through in several ways. Some bands are as heavy as ever but have a keyboard-tinged sound like Kalmah. Others like Mors Principium Est let it share the melody line. I've already written about Wintersun's masterful use of keyboards to create beautiful, atmospheric music. (Skip to the last minute of that song to see) The result can sometimes sound a lot like angrier power metal with extreme vocals. (Not that it's a bad thing)

Extreme metal has gained a bad rap as a haven for violence and Satanism--understandable, as the music that helped define it was largely about these things. But as just about every genre--punk, grunge, and rock itself--inevitably outgrows the scene of its birth, so death metal has advanced far beyond its origins. I think extreme music tends to attract extreme-minded, creative people, which helps make it a rewarding genre to explore (carefully, of course). I hope your interested has been piqued.

Kamelot is not the same.

Roy "Khan" Khantatat, the voice of Kamelot for thirteen years, has left the band. This is just a year of prog metal tragedies, isn't it? Unlike with Dream Theater, I'm not going to pronounce them dead--they still have Thomas Youngblood, guitarist, founder, and creative brain behind the band--but considering Khan's awesomeness, they're going to have to find someone excellent to stand a chance of replacing him. I look forward to seeing where Khan ends up as well. Best case scenario: considering DragonForce's recent parting of ways with ZP Theart, a switch is in order. Imagine Kamelot with ZP and--oh my goodness--DragonForce with Khan. I wish I could create some kind of vocal-switch mashup to experiment with how awesome this would be.

Note: Nevermind that DragonForce has already found a singer. This needs to happen.

Listen to the Sound

The new Building 429 album came out today! Apparently they synchronized the shipping so my CD came today; I'd been worried that it wouldn't arrive until I'd already gone home. I immediately dropped what I'd been doing and, after ripping it, put on my "special occasion" headphones (my Audio-Technica ATH-AD700s), sat in my chair, and listened through the whole thing, doing nothing but reading and meditating over the lyrics. Soon after I listened to it again. The third time through, my opinions have solidified enough to write down.

It's safe to say Building 429 had some lofty expectations to fulfill with this album. They've only been my favorite band for years. Their music has been with me through the highs and lows of life, constantly reminding me of God's goodness and faithfulness and my dependence on Him. Their beautiful, heartfelt lyrics and Jason Roy's amazing vocal delivery have combined to form some of my favorite songs ever. So, do they meet expectations or miss the mark on their latest release?

This album is noticeably more intense than any of their previous ones. They've certainly shed the "soft rock" label I'd apply to Space In Between Us. "Made For You" starts off with a synth reminiscent of their spacy third album, Iris to Iris, but soon the tempo picks up, the guitars start firing, and Jason Roy is belting out about how God gives his life meaning. The first half of the album is generally energetic rock anthems of God's goodness and how it affects lives. I hope the days of their quieter, more introspective songs like "Shadow of Angels" or "Oxygen (Bringing Me to Life)" aren't over, but at any rate they do well without it.

But I really don't listen to Building 429 for the music. If they were a secular band, they probably wouldn't interest me much. I'm getting this album at the end of a long and challenging year of college and B429's honest, God-glorifying lyrics give me hope for healing and a renewed, deeper relationship with a Savior who is Life itself. This is pretty much the point of the title track, which like most of the songs on the album has a powerful, uplifting, and undeniably catchy chorus that seals the deal. "One Foot", "Made For You" and "Love Has Been Spoken" tackle our identity and Christ and how it allows us to live transformed lives. "Right Beside You" features a duet with Dawn Michele of Fireflight and focuses on the important of fellowship and being there for each other in crises. "War Zone" is a quieter breather, relatively speaking, that nonetheless tackles the intense topic of spiritual warfare.

The album seems to lose a bit of steam in the second half, as if B429 packed all the best songs into the first, but it's still excellent. "Where I Belong" keeps the energy level high, but has rather stripped-back instrumentation compared to the rest of the album. You can practically feel the joy in "You Save Me", a powerful declaration of faith and a challenge to believers. "Walls Are Coming Down" and finally "Awaken Us" are both calls to action, to sink our roots deep into God's sustenance and let faith transform our lives.

Listen to the Sound is certainly a change of direction for Building 429, but not an entirely unwelcome one. It packs more energy and rocks harder than any of their previous albums, and the new style lends itself well to the uplifting anthems of faith and calls to action on the album. I do miss B429's quieter, more introspective side, which is largely absent on this album, but this new direction shows promise of its own. I highly recommend Listen to the Sound for fans of this fantastic band. For those just checking the band out, though, I recommend looking into Space In Between Us or their self-titled album first.

ADDENDUM: I take back what I said about the second half being weaker. This is the first album in my iTunes library in which every song has five stars.

NERD METAL (and other music)

During my musical journey thus far (yes, I began my previous post with that), I've come across some weird and truly wonderful bands. But so many of them are just too...cool. If the music world were a high school, they would be the cool kids who wear sunglasses indoors and budge in the lunch line. But I wasn't like that. I'm a nerd. Luckily, I've discovered some bands that share my passion for high fantasy, advanced topics, or music that is meant more to be decrypted that enjoyed. So, here are the ten nerdiest artists in my iTunes.

10. Dream Theater

Yeah, they may look all cool, but Dream Theater is pretty nerdy. Who else would write 20+-minute songs on fantasy, philosophy, and other weighty matters (or car accidents) packed with extended instrumental breaks in odd time signatures or keys? And YES THAT IS THE REAL LINEUP OF THE BAND

9. Rush

Another cool-yet-nerdy prog band from a bit before Dream Theater. Neil Peart just loves the fantasy/sci-fi/Ayn Rand lyrics. I don't listen to them as much as I should.

8. DragonForce

INTO THE FIRES OF FOREVER/WE WILL FLY THROUGH THE HEAVENS/WITH THE POWER OF THE UNIVERSE WE STAND STRONG TOGETHER/THROUGH THE FORCING OF POWER/IT WILL SOON REACH THE HOUR/FOR VICTORY WE RIDE/FURY OF THE STORM

7. Canvas Solaris

I've already discussed this band's nerdery. Their song titles alone pack more nerdiness than lesser bands, requiring several Ph.D's (no doubt shared by the members of the band) to decipher. And that's not even considering their music, which is even more technically complex than Dream Theater's.

6. Blind Guardian

These German power metal giants have written songs based on just about every fantasy series. (Including an entire album based on The Lord of the Rings) Also ancient sagas, classic poetry, history, and the Bible. No doubt there are at least a few songs in their body of work for you to fanboy/girl over.

5. Powerglove

I've already posted on these guys' fantastic cover of the Pokemon theme song with Tony Kakko. The rest of their work is no less hilariously awesome. They've done songs based on Final Fantasy, F-Zero, Sonic, Castlevania, even Duck Hunt. For a break, they did an album based on Saturday morning cartoons from their youth. (My favorite is their metal version of a song from Winnie the Pooh)

4. Rhapsody of Fire

You see those? Swords. Case closed.

3. Ayreon

Like Rhapsody of Fire, Ayreon's albums are all concept albums that tell epic tales. They go the sci-fi route rather than fantasy, with tons of retro-sounding synthesizer sounds. I'm not going to re-describe the storyline behind the albums; my previous post does a better job anyway. Did I mention it's all the brainchild of one brilliant Arjen Anthony Lucassen?

2. Jonathan Coulton

If anyone reading this hasn't heard of Jonathan Coulton, check him out, right now. He is geek rock at its finest. He's done songs on the Mandelbrot Set, Ikea, Skymall magazine, a heartsick programmer, office zombies, robot brides,  robot overlords running Christmas, and bacteria. Oh, he also wrote Still Alive if you've played Portal. His only possible rival in nerdiness: whoever made all those World of Warcraft AMVs for his songs.

1. Bal-Sagoth

I just discovered these guys. Black metal usually isn't considered a very nerdy genre, which makes them even more amazing. Like Rhapsody of Fire and Ayreon, they tell stories spanning multiple albums. Their subject matter is a mix of dark fantasy, sci-fi, and horror (two words: 'Cthulhu metal'). Their song titles are, shall we say...rather extreme and the story they tell twisted and complicated. They have plenty of cheesy synths to back up their dark, frantic sound. What takes the cake, though, is their brilliant vocalist, who effortlessly switches between black metal shrieks and a perfect, melodramatic, Christopher-Lee-in-a-B-movie narrator voice to tell parts of the story. Listen for yourself.

Moonsorrow

During my musical journey thus far, I've found a niche in quite a few extreme metal fields. None has been harder to get into, though, than black metal. This is because in my experience, black metal bands almost always tend to be blasphemous or overtly anti-Christian--not something I want to or should listen to. Lately, though, I've been finding some black metal bands with a more historical bent--think pagan legends, ancient wars, swords and sorcery, and the like. Moonsorrow is one of those bands, putting a folk music spin on the genre. Plus their song titles and lyrics are all in Finnish, so I can't even tell what they're saying. Anyway, they specialize in producing, beautiful, booming, epic-length compositions with similar emotional depth and dynamic range to Explosions in the Sky, only darker. Their penultimate album, V: Hävitetty, has two songs and is 56 minutes. Yeah. Here is the first track, broken up into three parts. It's amazing.

Dream Theater Is Still Dead.

However, it has recently come to my attention that they have finally announced their new drummer. A fellow called Mike Mangini. Apparently he's drummed with Annihilator, Extreme, and Stave Vai, played on one of LaBrie's solo albums, and has won several "world's fastest drummer" awards. Not a bad record--if he were in any other band, I'd be impressed and interested in checking out his work. But he has impossibly big shoes to fill. Dream Theater was in the unique and precarious position of having not one, but five "faces of the band", all of whom were central to Dream Theater's identity--none more so than Portnoy. Mangini might come close to matching Portnoy's drumming finesse, but while he's little more than a drummer, Portnoy was part of the heart and soul of the band. Their upcoming album might be well-executed, thoughtful, even brilliant--but it won't be by the Dream Theater I knew and loved. I'll stick with enjoying their previous work.