Discography: In Flames

In Flames is obviously a very important band in the melodeath scene. They were also a favorite band of mine for several years shortly after I discovered them.

LUNAR STRAIN:
In Flames's debut full-length is the only one in which Mikael Stanne appears as vocalist. In a bizarre coincidence, Stanne's longtime band Dark Tranquillity featured later In Flames's vocalist Anders Friden on vocals for their early material. That's not the only difference between this album and the band's later material though. This one also featured some almost folk metal moments with string instruments playing a role at times. This is a very impressive debut.

THE JESTER RACE:
The first album with Anders Friden as vocalist is a melodeath masterpiece. It is still not my favorite album by the band, but it is certainly up there. This is for the most part death metal with a melodic sensibility. It was at this time that the moniker melodeath was really accurate. Some of the earlier folk elements were still present, but this was basically the first real In Flames album.

WHORACLE:
In Flames continued to streamline their sound on this release from the last one. This is much more representative of the style that the band helped popularize and showed the band's ability to write catchy songs that still had a strong death metal influence. Their Iron Maiden-like riffing style had been perfected with this release and the band would continue to improve.

COLONY:
This is my favorite In Flames album. Everything was working perfectly on this release. The music was clearly death metal based with strong influences from much more melodic styles of metal. The songs were all infectious as hell. The instrumentation was impressive and Friden sounded amazing. This is the perfect In Flames album.

CLAYMAN:
At this time, In Flames was beginning to see some increase in popularity. This is something of a transition album. The music was still clearly on the melodeath side of things, but the band's pop sensibility was beginning to take over quite a bit. The band was making a conscious effort to reaching as vast an audience as they could. But this is still an impressive release.

REROUTE TO REMAIN:
My first In Flames album is seen by a lot of people as their sellout release, and in some ways it certainly was. Gone for the most part was a lot of the death metal influence. In Flames kept their catchy songwriting ability intact, but this album was far closer to nu metal and alternative metal styles. It is still not a bad release because the songs were still very good. As my first release by the band, I have kind of a soft spot for this release.

SOUNDTRACK TO YOUR ESCAPE:
Pretty much exactly the same as their previous album, only this time In Flames had gone even further away from death metal. Their exposure to the mainstream had given them a taste of major success and In Flames definitely wanted more. The songs were even shorter and tighter this time around, leaving very little room for experimentation of any type. I still kind of like this one though.

COME CLARITY:
On this release, In Flames made a conscious effort to try to recapture some of the old melodeath feel. What resulted was an album that basically combined Reroute to Remain with Clayman. It was an admirable effort and there are certainly some impressive songs on this album. However, some of the magic was gone. It felt a little uneven at times. It was clear that In Flames was really beginning to lose it.

A SENSE OF PURPOSE:
And there it went. This is the album that caused me to give up on the band. I had heard leading into it that it was a further step in the right direction. I do not remember who told me that, but they were delusional. This is basically modern rock. Even the band's logo and artwork reflect a desire to sound like the crap heard on modern rock radio. There were only a couple of salvageable songs on here. Too bad.

I have not yet summoned the desire to hear their newest release. I am not sure I want to. The one song I have heard takes all the bad things from their last one and amplifies them. I am not sure I want to hear that.

Discography: Dark Tranquillity

Dark Tranquillity was the first melodeath band I discovered. My initial discovery of the band was due to a review of Projector I found in an issue of Metal Hammer. I was intrigued by what I had read and eventually found an album by the band in the same place I found the magazine, oddly enough the University Bookstore. That album was Skydancer, and I was hooked.

SKYDANCER:
Dark Tranquillity's debut album finds the band in a much different sound than their later material. The sound is a little more open, less dense, and more ethereal. The band relied a lot on tremolo riffs at the time, which were played quickly and formed the major melodies of the band. The other obvious difference was that Anders Friden was the singer on this material. His higher pitched vocals form a stark contrast to the later works with Mikael Stanne.

OF CHAOS AND ETERNAL NIGHT:
Yes it's an EP, but it is still very important in Dark Tranquillity's discography. For one, it is the first recording with Mikael Stanne on vocals. For a second reason, it is often included along with the Skydancer album. The music was much the same as on the prior album, but it was darker. DT even re-recorded "Alone" for the album.

THE GALLERY:
Dark Tranquillity's landmark album and one of the greatest melodeath albums ever. This was the album on which Dark Tranquillity really discovered their sound, a more distorted and darker version of their earlier material. Dark Tranquillity was also able to fully realize their ability to write tighter and punchier songs that were still just as infectious as that of their earlier stuff.

THE MIND'S I:
I will be honest. I have not heard this one, so I cannot really comment on it.

PROJECTOR:
This album found the band experimenting a little bit more than their much more straightforward earlier material. Dark Tranquillity began using some more electronic elements and keyboard work. Mikael Stanne also started experimenting with some haunting clean vocals. His work was quite impressive, particularly on the slower tracks. This is the most diverse Dark Tranquillity album in my opinion.

HAVEN:
On this release, Stanne for the most part abandoned the clean vocal style. A little bit disappointing in my view personally, but the music remained basically the same. Experimentation with keyboards and electronic elements continued and would be a major part of the band's sound from this point on. This was actually the second album I heard from the band, and despite my initial disappointment due to the differences from their debut, I eventually grew to love it just as much.

DAMAGE DONE:
For the most part, the band's 2002 album was virtually identical to their prior album. Dark Tranquillity had settled on a new sound that was characterized less by tremolo riffing style and more by an atmospheric and heavy version of the style of riffing the band once made popular. Keyboards were heavily prevalent and Stanne's vocal style was for the most part a deep guttural roar.

CHARACTER:
Another landmark album for the band and often considered their greatest album of their newer sound. The songs were catchy and aggressive and retained the sound that Dark Tranquillity had been working to perfect for the last several albums. This version of Dark Tranquillity bears little resemblance to that of The Gallery other than Stanne's vocals, but was great in its own way.

FICTION:
This is the first Dark Tranquillity album that I remember not being blown away by or eventually learning to love. The sound is basically the same as their prior album, but it does not add anything new or different and it does not improve at all on anything from earlier. It is just sort of there. Dark Tranquillity was spinning their wheels on this one unfortunately.

WE ARE THE VOID:
And unfortunately, the band did not improve on this release either. The band sounds tired and none of the songs really stand out. It's time for something new for the band or they will continue to go down the same route as countrymen and fellow melodeath bands Soilwork and In Flames. I hope they figure it out soon.

Satan's Host

I hinted at a post looking at this somewhat unknown band a couple of weeks ago. Well here it is finally.

Satan's Host is a band out of Colorado that has had a little bit of an unusual career trajectory. The band started out as a power metal band and featured the vocal talents of Harry "The Tyrant" Conklin, most notably of Jag Panzer. They disbanded in the 1980's and within the last ten years or so re-emerged with a new sound, a blackened thrash metal sound with some death metal elements thrown in. The vocals have been done mostly in a black metal raspy style, but occasionally sound like a blackened death metal vocalist, such as Nergal from Behemoth. Strangely, Conklin has very recently been brought back into the fold. They have not released a new album with him, so I am not sure what they will continue to sound like, but I'm looking forward to it.

The driving force behind the band is the impressive guitar work of Pat Evil. The man can absolutely shred, although he does not do so frequently. When he does though, it is extremely impressive. He is also an impressive songwriter and riff master.

The one real issue with the band is their lyrical content and the messages of the albums. I do not personally have a problem with it, but the band is clearly Satanic and utilizes a lot of space on their albums toward preaching their Satanic invocations. Again, not a problem for me, but for others. For that reason, the band will never gain much more than a loyal cult following, which is a shame. When they want to, this band is amazing.

I had a chance to see Satan's Host and Drawn and Quartered in Omaha, but it was on a week night, I had an important hearing the next day, and I lived two hours away. Disappointing. Nebraska simply does not have enough good concerts to afford to miss them, but there must be some law that says all Nebraska concerts must be on weeknights. A bunch of crap.

SATANIC GRIMOIRE-A GREATER BLACK MAGICK
This is the first album I heard from the band, although I bought both it and the next album at the same time. The album starts with a spoken word calling to Satan and then kicks right into the first shredfest, the great "Necromantic Art", with some extremely impressive lead guitar work. Despite this, the album often feels a little sludgy, doomy, and not as fast as the band is capable of being. The band is concentrated more on creating a dark atmosphere, and this goal is accomplished easily, but sometimes, I just want to hear Pat Evil unleashed. Despite this minor flaw, the album remains a truly interesting piece of music. There are plenty of moments where the band rips into an impressive thrash metal riff and speed, such as "Metal from Hell". These are my favorite moments. The bonus tracks are both terrific and should have been part of the album proper.

GREAT AMERICAN SCAPEGOAT-666
Their next album starts off again with a spoken word intro. Very spooky stuff indeed. This album starts off sounding more like a blackened death metal album with tremolo-picked guitar leads and a deeper growl. This album as a whole is a bit more musical than the last album. It is however much closer to blackened death than blackened thrash. The album fits in well with groups like Belphegor, Behemoth, Angelcorpse and the like. Overall that's not a problem though because Pat Evil still lets loose with an abasolutely blazing guitar solo once in awhile, with "7 Strings, Sin" being just a guitar solo.

POWER, PURITY, PERFECTION-999
The newest album by Satan's Host presents the band going back for a thrashier sound once again. The opening track this time features a spine-chilling melodic guitar lead setting up the first song. This album features longer, complete songs with only two interlude tracks. This album features an increased reliance on Pat Evil's guitar wizardry to drive the music, and it is completely successful. This is my favorite of the three albums I have heard by Satan's Host, mainly due to the amazing lead guitar work. The track "Dark Priest 'Lord Ahriman'" in particular features some truly outstanding leads.

As mentioned before, some changes are afoot regarding this band. I have not heard their earlier power metal material, so I am not sure what it sounded like, but it looks like I may have a chance with Conklin back behind the mic.

Megadeth Discography Pt. 2

Well I decided to go ahead and post a little look at some of my other compilations that I have by Megadeth. I will not look at the live concert I recorded off of the radio due to the fact that it is not an official release by the band, but there's a greatest hits compilation, rarities compilation and a bonus live CD.

LIMITED EDITION MEGADETH LIVE!
This is a six-song bonus disc that came with the Countdown to Extinction album. It features a decent look at several of their big songs up until that point. No songs were picked from the debut album, but there is one song each from Peace Sells and Rust in Peace, and two songs from So Far, So Good and Countdown. The "Symphony of Destruction" track is my favorite because it is played faster and with more intensity than the album version. I have never been a big fan of their Sex Pistols cover, so I could throw away the last track. The rest are quality recordings of very good Megadeth songs.

HIDDEN TREASURES
This is an EP collection of songs that have appeared on various soundtracks and other compilations. There are some great songs on here, such as "Angry Again" and "99 Ways to Die". There's also a couple of clunkers, in particular "Problems", another punk cover. Overall though, this is a great pickup for a Megadeth fan as it has a bunch of their early rare tracks. The other way to get these at the time this was released was to pick up a bunch of soundtrack albums that may not be worth it. Of course now that there's downloading, this would no longer be necessary.

CAPITOL PUNISHMENT
This is the first of the band's greatest hits compilations and features music up through Risk. It also features two new tracks, "Kill the King" and "Dread and the Fugitive Mind", the latter of which later appeared on The World Needs a Hero. It also featured a medley of a bunch of songs at the end. This is an okay compilation but there are not really any surprises on it and there are far too many later-era songs. The songs are all in reverse chronological order as well, which just is not that creative. Still it's a decent way to get most of the band's big hits.

Megadeth Discography Pt. 1?

If I had to pick a favorite band that I have listened to since I first got into metal, it would be difficult to choose between Metallica and Megadeth. I have oftentimes enjoyed Megadeth's far more emotional style of thrash metal and politically-minded ravings than Metallica's workmanlike machinations. Vocalist/guitarist Dave Mustaine is a better musician than any given member of Metallica and his voice is more interesting than James Hetfield's. What makes Megadeth falter though is Mustaine's inferiority complex about Metallica. It has caused him to make some very poor musical decisions over the years resulting in some albums that do not rise to the level of memorability as much of Metallica's work, to say the least of mainstream exposure. Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica shortly before they recorded their debut album and has held a grudge against them ever since. He is also apparently difficult to work with as Megadeth has had 20 members over the years with only Mustaine being there the whole time.

However, when Mustaine wants to, he can still write some very good music. I have been a fan of Megadeth almost as long as Metallica. My older brother had their Countdown to Extinction album and I borrowed it frequently when I was getting into metal. Megadeth was the first metal band outside of Metallica whose album I bought. I got Youthanasia around Christmastime of my eighth grade year with a gift certificate.

I own every full length Megadeth album, as well as a live bootleg that was played on the local hard rock station in Lincoln, a live bonus CD, a compilation of songs for soundtracks, and a greatest hits compilation. I will use this post to only discuss the full-length albums and perhaps I will have a follow-up later on to cover the other stuff I have.

KILLING IS MY BUSINESS...AND BUSINESS IS GOOD!
The debut album by Megadeth showed that the band was ready to take on the thrash scene. They played much faster than Metallica and were louder and more brazen. The best example of the difference in the bands' speed can be found in the song "Mechanix". This was the early version of the Metallica classic "The Four Horsemen", except it is much faster and more chaotic. In addition, Mustaine's air raid siren vocals and sinister sneer made their first appearances. Mustaine was nastier and angrier than Hetfield, adding a malevolent edge to the music with his unique vocal style. The guitar work is fantastic, but still a shell of what it would soon become.

PEACE SELLS...BUT WHO'S BUYING?
Megadeth reached their full potential already as a thrash metal band on this terrific album. The production quality is not great, but it gives the songs a raw, dirty vibe. This album is a thrash metal landmark, but it came out at the same time as Master of Puppets so it does not get the credit that it so richly deserves. What distinguishes this album from others is the very impressive lead guitar work. There are almost constant guitar solos running through everything, a trait which would continue in a lot of Megadeth's albums. The bass is also incredible. David Ellefson is a very underrated musician. Mustaine's sneer has improved by leaps and bounds. The songs do not feature a typical progression and there are frequent, long instrumental interludes, but that's not a problem when the music is this good. The opening bassline for "Peace Sells" was featured as opening music for MTV News for years.

SO FAR, SO GOOD...SO WHAT!
This album certainly has some classic songs, but it is evident that the band is attempting to break into the mainstream somewhat. A lot of the raw feel has been smoothed over on this album. This is the band's first album on a major label and it is clear that the label viewed the band as some sort of poor man's Metallica. Hence the production values. This album just is not quite as memorable as the two that came before it although, again, there is some great stuff here. Mustaine's lead guitar work has continued to improve, as have his vocals. The album is still fast and loud as hell, but the glossy sound kind of takes out some of the fun. It is nice to fully hear what is going on in the music, but the raw feel is greatly missed. The band did show off a rare somber side with "In My Darkest Hour", which I believe is the best song on the album.

RUST IN PEACE
This is not only the best album Megadeth has ever released, it is one of the best metal albums in history. I had it ranked #3 behind only Metallica's Ride the Lightning and Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. The songs are all amazing, with only one exception. The musicianship is incredible, and Mustaine's vocals sound better than they have before or since. The real key to this album is the solo contest Mustaine had with new axe-slinger Marty Friedman. He truly found a guitarist every bit as talented as he was and the trading solos on this album proved a bit of a friendly rivalry as to who could out-shred the other. The songs featured a little more of a progressive songwriting style and the genre of the album fluctuates between thrash, progressive, and traditional metal depending on the song. "Hangar 18" and "Tornado of Souls" are probably two of my absolute favorite Megadeth songs, if not metal songs in general. Megadeth would never be as good as they were on this album again, which is a major shame.

COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION
Countdown was Megadeth's bid to be more commercially successful and was mostly the result of Mustaine's continuing envy of the success of Metallica. The songs are much shorter and feature more traditional metal song structures, such as verses and choruses, something which had been lacking in their music previously. It was extremely successful and this is the band's best-selling album to date, featuring many hit songs such as "Symphony of Destruction", the title track, and "Sweating Bullets". The title track also won the band the Humane Society's Genesis Award for its spotlight on species extinction and canned hunting. Unfortunately, while many of the songs are good, this album was the album in which Mustaine really sold out, choosing radio-friendly songs instead of the thrash classics of the band's past.

YOUTHANASIA
This was the first Megadeth album I owned. The album was an effort to combine the radio-friendly aspects of the last album with some harder-edged more metallic elements. The songs were still very melodic, including the hit "A Tout Le Monde", but the album also featured some very heavy riffs, such as the one at the beginning of "Train of Consequences". This album essentially continued the downward turn from the prior album, but all was not lost as Mustaine's gift for writing catchy and interesting songs was still very much intact. The songs on this album were not as heavy as prior material, but they were interesting in their own way.

CRYPTIC WRITINGS
I'm not really sure what happened here. At least the last two albums prior to this bore some resemblance, however slight, to the albums that came before them. This album was a total shift in sound. There are very few moments where any signs of thrash metal still exist. For the most part, this album was produced in order to get Megadeth their long-desired #1 album. It was hugely successful as there were many radio hits on the album. There are still some harder songs, such as "The Disintegrators", "Vortex", and "She Wolf". However, many of the songs are lighter and geared towards modern rock radio. It is still mostly a metal album, but it fit in well with stuff on the radio at the time. At least the songs were good and catchy, and I still like this album better than Metallica's Load.

RISK
The name of the album says it all. This was a huge risk, and it did not pay off. After the success of the last album, Mustaine gave up more creative control over his band to a producer to again try for a #1 record. What resulted was a commercial and musical failure. This is one of my least-favorite albums in my music collection. I drag it out to listen to maybe once a year. Mustaine refuses to play any songs off of this album in concert, and for good reason. There is virtually no metal at all present on this album and Megadeth incorporates influences from electronic music, country, and several other areas the band had no business reaching into. Quite frankly, other than Mustaine's voice, this sounds nothing like Megadeth. There are very few decent moments and a whole lot of bad ones. It's odd that one band can supply one of my absolute favorite albums, as well as one of my most hated.

THE WORLD NEEDS A HERO
Thankfully after the mess that was the last album, Megadeth made a comeback of sorts. This album is not a complete return to form, but it does at least reach back to their more melodic traditional-sounding metal of the early 1990's. There are definite metal riffs and the album is significantly heavier than the last couple of albums. Mustaine's voice sounds great once again and his guitar solos have slowed a little but made up for their decrease in speed with improved technicality. Marty Friedman had left the band by this point because he did not want to return the band to its prior metal sound. It's unfortunate, but it did lead to Mustaine retaking the reins of the band and the spotlight. The album features some more personal songs such as "1000 Times Goodbye" and it also features a continuation of "Hangar 18" called "Return to the Hangar" with new lyrics centered around the same riff. This is a decent album, certainly better than their last couple, but not at the level as their early work and it really drags in the middle section.

THE SYSTEM HAS FAILED
This album basically built on the previous one. Megadeth were clearly on their way back, but they seemed to be taking baby steps. This album is a little more consistent and did not have a long dragging point in the middle of it, but they were not quite all the way back yet. Megadeth had gone on quite a long hiatus before releasing this album. Mustaine suffered a horrific injury that threatened to end his guitar-playing days and he broke up the band setting off major lawsuits with longtime bassist David Ellefson. He then found God and made a full recovery. His newly Christian values are apparent in this album with the last two tracks. Politcal rants re-emerged as the major lyrical topic. The guitar work is once again fantastic. At the least, Mustaine proved that he could definitely still play. Unfortunately there are not really any must-hear tracks on this one. They are all good, for the most part, but there are not any standouts.

UNITED ABOMINATIONS
Again building on the previous improvements, Megadeth is still fighting on this album to regain their place among the pantheon of thrash metal greats. They take another step closer on this album. It was well-received critically and commercially. Mustaine even managed to ruffle some feathers with the United Nations based on the title track and received a rebuttal of his claims in that song. That's pretty impressive that a metal band forced the U.N. to respond. This album also features a re-recording of "A Tout Le Monde" with Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna COil providing guest vocals. The only real issue with the album is that it does sound quite a bit like the previous two albums. It's clearly the best album Megadeth had produced since Youthanasia at least. It also again gave fans hope for the next album to be what they have desired for the next one. The old Megadeth was clearly on its way.

ENDGAME
And they arrived. This is an incredible album. It's the best Megadeth album since Rust in Peace, better than all of the albums that came before it. Megadeth's aggression and anger came roaring back on this album with the blazing "Head Crusher" and "The Right to Go Insane". The album kicks off with a bang on "Dialectic Chaos", one of the best album opening tracks I have heard in a long time. The intensity level never backs off either. It is the most complete Megadeth album in a very long time. Even Rust in Peace had a throwaway track, but this album really does not. This was one hell of a comeback and was a very pleasant surprise. Even the frequent guitar soloing sounded like the old Megadeth. Hopefully the band continues in this vein.

Megadeth released some bad albums but they have been striving for a comeback for quite awhile. As far as the Big 4 of American thrash, Megadeth is probably the most musically gifted and they have also proven that they can still be viable in the metal scene. Slayer has been the most consistent, but none of their latest albums comes close to the latest Megadeth album. Anthrax has not been good in a long time. And finally, although Metallica put together their own colossal comeback album, it does not hold a candle to the newest Megadeth album.

Favorite New Bands of the 2000's Pt. 10: Scar Symmetry

I know you all have been waiting with baited breath for the last post in this series. No? Whatever, it's my blog.

To recap, here are the other groups I have discussed:
Lair of the Minotaur
Swallow the Sun
Ahab
Skeletonwitch
The Black Dahlia Murder
Estuary
Arsis
Eluveitie
Trench Hell

Okay, now that that's out of the way, here's the final entry in the list of Top 10 Favorite New Bands of the 2000's: Scar Symmetry.

Scar Symmetry is a Swedish band that combines melodeath with some almost power metalesque vocals on occasion. Chief behind this is former singer Christian Alvestam, who has one of the most interesting voices in metal. The production is always very clean, allowing the listener to hear everything going on, and trust me, there's a lot of stuff happening. Sometimes it does border on sterility, but for the most part with the futuristic-sounding music and lyrical themes, that actually comes off as a good thing. The riffs are performed in a fairly basic Gothenburg style, and they are added to by lots of melodic keyboard passages. The choruses are infectious and oftentimes pop-inflected.

Alvestam delivers three types of vocals. He has some pretty deep death growls, a raspier vocal style, and some amazing clean vocals. He truly is a gifted singer. Unfortunately, he left Scar Symmetry prior to their fourth album and had to be replaced by two singers to cover the same ground Alvestam covered himself.

I have all four full-length Scar Symmetry albums and will now share some brief thoughts about each one:

SYMMETRIC IN DESIGNThe band's debut album found them fully formed. This is not terribly surprising as main songwriter Jonas Kjellgren is a veteran of bands such as Dellamorte and Carnal Forge. The band had already discovered their sound, a poppy Gothenburg style, but they were not In Flames ripoffs at all. Alvestam's vocals lead the charge backed by Kjellgren's impressive playing.

PITCH BLACK PROGRESSThis was the first album I owned by Scar Symmetry, picking it up after hearing a song on Music Choice just prior to going out on a road trip. This one immediately made me a fan of the band. It's a little bit darker than most of their other material, with more emphasis on the death metal vocals. The songs are a little tighter and catchier still. This remains my favorite Scar Symmetry album.

HOLOGRAPHIC UNIVERSEThe first time I heard this, I did not care for it much, but it definitely grew on me. It's not quite as good as the previous album, but it has what I consider to be the band's best song on it, "Quantum Leaper".

DARK MATTER DIMENSIONSThis is the first album since Alvestam left. His successors do an admirable job of replacing him, but it's just not the same. It will be interesting to see where the band goes from here. They definitely have the songwriting abilities to keep things going for awhile.

In Honor of Halloween: Mercyful Fate and King Diamond

King Diamond, a.k.a. Kim Bendix Petersen, of Copenhagen, Denmark is one of the most interesting vocalists in metal. King has been the vocalist for both Mercyful Fate and his self-named band, oftentimes simultaneously. King's vocals are very distinctive as King frequently sings in the falsetto range, occasionally coming back down to emphasize different voices, as the song requires.

Both bands have been cited for being a major influence on the development of thrash, death, black, and gothic metal. The two bands, though similar musically, are nonetheless a little different as far as creativity involved in the songs. For the most part, Mercyful Fate is more of a song band, allowing King and company to focus more on the songwriting aspect of music. King Diamond on the other hand, is more involved in the storytelling side of things. In addition, lyrically, Mercyful Fate deals with occult themes whereas King Diamond tells horror stories. Currently, King Diamond is still active while Mercyful Fate remains on hiatus.

From a visual standpoint, King is very memorable. He was among the first in metal to don makeup, a look which eventually lead black metal bands to apply "corpse paint". King also typically dressed like a heavy metal Dracula, wearing a black and red cape with his hair black and slicked back, although this look occasionally switched to a black trench coat and a top hat or bowler. King's microphone onstage was a cross made of bones hanging from the back of the microphone. He also once had a skull that he sang to, named Melissa after one of Mercyful Fate's early albums/songs.

The important thing for this Halloween-related blog today is that the songs by both bands were often spooky. King also has a gift for concept albums. I will cover each of the albums I own by both bands and discuss the concept or lyrical themes. If the album is not a concept album, I will look at some of the individual songs.

MERCYFUL FATE: MELISSA
Mercyful Fate's debut album was a large success and still is the most well-known album from the two bands. It featured songs about a witch who was murdered ("Melissa"), witchcraft ("Into the Coven"), and in general songs about Satanism and evil ("Evil", "Curse of the Pharaohs", "Satan's Fall").

MERCYFUL FATE: DON'T BREAK THE OATH
This album found the band settling on a style strongly influenced by Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, but dealign again heavily with the occult. Notable spooky songs include "Desecration of Souls", "Night of the Unborn", "Welcome Princes of Hell", and "Come to the Sabbath".

KING DIAMOND: ABIGAIL
Abigail is to King Diamond as Melissa is to Mercyful Fate, the most well-known album in the band's very strong catalog. The story to this album is about a young couple who moves into a mansion that the husband inherited, but are warned by seven horsemen to avoid the place. The husband is visited in his sleep by his ancestor who shows him a casket with an stillborn child inside and tells him that his wife is now carrying the spirit of the unborn child and must be killed to avoid the child becoming reborn. The wife is clearly pregnant the next day and progressing rapidly, but before he can do anything about it, she throws him down the stairs and Abigail is born, although the wife does not survive childbirth. Abigail is alone as the seven horsemen return to the mansion to kill her.

KING DIAMOND: "THEM"
King is the main protagonist in this story as he deals with his mentally ill grandmother who has recently returned from an asylum. King sees her having a tea party alone after investigating due to hearing strange voices and sees teacups and kettles floating in the air. Grandma later wakes him and tells him that she will tell him about Amon, her house, and takes him into his mother's room where Grandma cuts King's sleeping mother's hand and pours her blood into the teapot. King becomes catatonic as does his mother. His sister Missy tries to wake him to try to help their mother. King refuses to help and cuts the phone line. Missy breaks the teapot out of anger, but the ghosts in the house become enraged and chop Missy up with an axe and throw the pieces into the fireplace. King snaps out of it and leaves the house where he is able to understand the prior events. He lures his grandmother out of the house and kills her. He is convicted of the crime and sent to an asylum, but upon returning home finds that the voices and Grandma are still present.

KING DIAMOND: THE SPIDER'S LULLABY
This album is not a full concept album, although the second half of the songs do tell a story. The first half contains songs about ghosts ("The Poltergeist"), serial killers ("Killer"), and cursed children ("Moonlight"), among other things. The second half tells the story of a man afraid of spiders. The man finds a psychiatrist who claims to specialize in curing phobias. The man is placed into a room with a wolf spider. He complains of bites and pain but the doctor does not help him. Later, he is found dead in his room and cocooned in a spider web. After his death, spiders began using his empty eye sockets as nests.

KING DIAMOND: GIVE ME YOUR SOUL...PLEASE
A brother and sister are waiting for judgment in the afterlife. The brother is sent to Hell as a mistake has lead the Thirteen Judges to the wrongful belief that he had committed suicide, when in fact, both children were killed by their father before he committed suicide. The girl decides to find a new soul for her brother so that he can come to Heaven with her. She haunts King, the protagonist of this story as well. King contacts her via black magic and she tells her story, but she finds him too full of sin and he pleads with her to leave the house and find another soul before sunrise. She leaves King and comes to "THIS HOUSE", implying that she is coming to the home of the listener.

Testament-One of My Favorites

"Friday, you will have the chance to party down in the church basement to the Jesus rock stylings of Testament. That's on Friday, 6 p.m. sharp."
-Reverend Lovejoy

"[scoffs] All the best bands are affiliated with Satan."
-Bart Simpson

I love that quote from The Simpsons. Testament was one of my early favorite bands. I first heard them on the local hard rock radio station in my hometown. At the time, the album Low was new and fairly popular. The band was really one of the first extreme metal bands I had heard and enjoyed as that album combined several influences from various genres, mostly thrash, groove, and some death metal. Upon getting that album, I was very impressed with the band and gradually added most of their other releases. I was a little surprised at the changes the band made in its sound over the years.

EARLY YEARS: THRASH

Testament is a band from the Bay Area thrash metal scene, along with groups like Metallica, Forbidden, and Exodus. The music at the time was not the most extreme, however the lyrical themes were. Testament has always had fairly dark lyrical content, dealing with Satanism and the occult. Even when they branched out more, they still dealt with topics such as rebellion and politics. The music was obviously Bay Area in origin, somewhat melodic. The band's best feature was the guitar work by Alex Skolnick, a classically trained guitarist. Chuck Billy possessed vocals similar to other bands from the scene at the time.

THE CHANGE TO A MELODIC STYLE

Testament's first four albums were fairly typical Bay Area thrash, however the band felt the pressure that other thrash metal bands from that time period did, thanks to Metallica's Black Album. Testament also scaled down the aggressiveness of their sound at the time they released the album The Ritual. They lessened the thrash metal sound and went for a much more melodic basic heavy metal sound. I still enjoy their music on that album, particularly since the song "Return to Serenity" appears on this album, and as mentioned earlier this is my favorite song.

RETURN TO AGGRESSION

Testament returned to a more aggressive approach to metal music in the mid 1990's with Low. Alex Skolnick left the band, along with a couple of other members, and as they were the members trying to push the band in a more melodic direction, the band reverted to a harder edged sound. This album features elements of thrash and groove metal, along with one ballad, and one song "Dog Faced Gods" which was much more death metal-oriented than anything the band had previously done. The band's next album featured more and more death metal style.

The band also released an amazing live album during this time period. Live at the Fillmore features my favorite version of my favorite song.
And, of course, we have The Gathering which was definitely a more death metal album. The lyrical themes were evil, the music was heavy and dark, and the vocals were extreme. It was quite possibly the band's best album to date. But then, cancer struck Chuck Billy and the band would not release any new material for several years.

RETURN TO THE APOCALYPTIC CITY

The caption here is a reference to a Testament EP. The band finally returned in 2008, almost ten years after their last album. Their newest album is a nice balance of all of their prior metal styles. It was a good comeback album, not the best, but by no means a bad album. It's just great to have such an amazing and influential band back finally after all these years.

Goatwhore Discography

Goatwhore is currently one of my favorite bands. I got into the band fairly recently though. Prior to that, the band's name was a source of joking between my friend and I. We frequently discussed the most bizarre, ridiculous band name, and Goatwhore was frequently the winner. It wasn't until I heard the band on Headbanger's Ball and Music Choice that I discovered what I had been missing. I had never actually heard the band until that point, and boy was I missing out on something. Goatwhore seemlessly blends influences from almost all of the major styles of metal without making it sound like a fusion band. It's easy to be able to say that this band clearly listens to metal. Grind, death, doom, black, and thrash metal are all present here.

Goatwhore started in Louisiana in the mid to late 90's. The band was formed by members of Acid Bath, Crowbar, and other New Orleans-area bands. In 1998 Ben Falgoust of Soilent Green took over on lead vocals and the band was fully formed. At that point, they started recording and laying down a swath of destruction over the countryside. Sammy Duet and Ben Falgoust remain the primary members of the band. Goatwhore is easily one of the U.S.'s most explosive metal bands.

Since I now own all of their recordings, I will look at their full discography here.

SERENADES TO THE TIDES OF BLOOD

Goatwhore's demo is actually a well-written, professional sounding recording. A little unusual for a demo, but not as much when band member histories are taken into account. For the most part, the band's sound remains unchanged from the sound on the demo. The combination of death, doom, thrash, and black metal is already present. Even the band's indescribable swagger is present on this demo. Vocally, the signature rasping growls are present, and there are some clean almost-crooning vocals arising every once in awhile. The vocal interplay gives the music a slightly epic and creepy vibe. This demo could have easily become the band's first full length album: there are enough songs present. In fact, many of the songs were re-worked into final form for inclusion on the debut full length. Even the production sounds more like a full length than demo with only a couple of minor changes needed: the drums are a bit too high in the mix, and the guitars are not as beefy as they should be. All in all, this is a very professional sounding demo and a sign of great things to come from the band.

THE ECLIPSE OF AGES INTO BLACK

Goatwhore's debut full length album built on what the band started in its demo. The sound has been filled out a little more, giving the music a heavier more powerful feel to it. Many of the songs off of the demo have been re-recorded for this album, only two of the demo tracks did not make the final cut for the album. The band on this album is still a little on the doomy side of things; the black, thrash, and death influences have not come to totally dominate the band's sound. Furthermore, the two-pronged vocal styles present on the demo continued on this album. Falgoust still reaches back for his maniacal screams while Sammy Duet fills in the occasional clean vocal part. The drumming on this album has been tightened up considerably, at this point, the band has no musical weaknesses. The band, already on its debut, has become fully formed. Things would just get darker and more violent from this point forward.

GOATWHORE/EPOCH OF UNLIGHT SPLIT

Goatwhore's side of this split (which was reviewed in full earlier on the blog) is one song: a cover of the Hellhammer/Celtic Frost classic "Into the Crypts of Rays". The band does a fine job with this cover, mosty because it is obvious that Goatwhore's influences include Hellhammer/Celtic Frost among other bands. They have the trademarked guitar tone down well and Ben Falgoust even manages to approximate Tom G. Warrior's famous grunting style. This song did appear on the Japanese version of the band's Funeral Dirge for the Rotting Sun album, making seeking out the split a little unnecessary, but it is a good version of a metal classic.

FUNERAL DIRGE FOR THE ROTTING SUN

When this album kicks off, the listener immediately understands that the band, which had no weaknesses on the last album at all, somehow managed to improve. If possible, this album is even more aggressive, angry, and violent than the last full length. Falgoust's vocals are deeper and more maniacal than ever. The bottom end is heavier, and the riffs are more distorted and groove-laden than before. Gone, for the most part, are the clean vocals and in their place are deeper guttural croaks from Sammy Duet. The crooning does show up once in a great while, but the extreme vocals have basically taken over. The band did not record as many songs as on their previous album, but the songs remained about the same length, which makes this album shorter but it still packs a wallop.

A HAUNTING CURSE

This album was the first that Goatwhore recorded on a larger label, Metal Blade. As such, the band had started to get a little more mainstream exposure. This is also the band's strongest album to date. The clean vocals and most of the softer, more melodic parts of the music have been purged from the band's sound. At this point, the band's sound has evolved into extreme riffs and pounding drums. There is no respite from this onslaught, the band continues to pound away no matter what. Musically, the band's genre is closer related to blackened death than any of the other metal genres previously present. Falgoust has taken over more of the vocal duties, leaving Duet to chime in less often than he even previously did. At this time, the band has seemingly found its own unique voice. The songs are a little longer and the production a little more crisp making it easier to hear what is happening in the music. This was Goatwhore's breakthrough album, the first one I had heard, and the one that convinced me to seek out more of their material. This is an extremely intense listen.

CARVING OUT THE EYES OF GOD

This is already one of the top albums to come out so far in 2009. Goatwhore followed up their last album with more ferociously intense, blistering Southern style blackened death. The only real changes here on this album are production changes. The instruments can all be heard a little bit better and the production is the clearest of any of the Goatwhore's albums. The songs are a little bit longer, but still certainly not long. The songwriting has improved somewhat, there are recognizable changes in the tempo of the songs a little more often, but this has done nothing to detract from their intensity. Goatwhore has raised itself to an elite level of American metal bands on this album. Let's just hope they can keep it going. Nothing in the band's history would seem to suggest that they could not.