Neonfly - Strangers In Paradise (2014)

When metal leans toward the super-melodic, it can often result in sounding watered down or just lack that element of heaviness that gives metal much of its appeal, and not be much more than just really syrupy sounding hard rock.  There's nothing wrong with that, per se, because there have been a number of heavier metal bands lately that have taken that ultra-melodic, hard rock-influenced metal sound and made it successful.  Most of those bands tend to wear thin, however, once the novelty of the sound combo wears off, unless the songs are really good and stay with you.  The melodicism helps, but ultimately, the songs need to be memorable or make an impact to stay with you beyond the few minutes after listening to the album.  How does this apply to Neonfly?  Read on, gentle reader.

I'd not heard of Neonfly prior to receiving a review copy of Strangers In Paradise, but upon first listen, I enjoyed what I heard.  It reminded me immediately of the most recent material by Random Eyes, in that it's highly melodic metal that has some crunch to it, but has a bit of a hard rock bent without leaning too far in that direction.  Vocalist Willy Norton reminds me a bit of Random Eyes vocalist Christian Palin as well, because he rides that line between silky smooth and reasonably gritty and can transition between the two seamlessly.  Random Eyes is also a touchstone as to the band's sound, because Strangers In Paradise sounds a fair bit like Random Eyes' latest album, Light Up, due to its overt melodicism, and the way it straddles the line between hard rock, melodic heavy metal, and power metal at times.

Right away, it's evident that these guys can play and have major talent.  Guitarists Frederick Thunder and Patrick Harrington have the chops, and interweave a real interesting web of riffs, rhythms, licks, and leads throughout the course of the album.  The guitar sound is, what I would describe, as "semi-heavy" through much of the album.  Other than on the barn-burner "Highways To Nowhere", the riffs and rhythm playing don't get super heavy, but do contain a sufficient amount of crunch when the songs maintain a heavier feel.  Other times, clean playing, such as on the ballad "Rose In Bloom", or during the intro to "Aztec Gold", propels the songs in a way that belies the band's metal roots a bit, but not sacrifice the overall feel.  As for the leads, they're the expected melodic fair, but there are some nice bits (like in "Aztec Gold" where the guitars veer slightly away from the melodic, and into mere soundscape, which is a nice touch.  Bass work by Paul Miller is competent and sounds good here, though a tiny bit low in the overall mix.  Drumming is handled by Boris Le Gal, and he does a standout job of providing propulsive rhythms, dynamics, and really has a handle on how best to serve the song with his playing.  The review copy didn't include any info as to who provided the keyboard work on the album, but it's also quite good at times, with some nice symphonic elements here and there.

As I said before, vocalist Willy Norton reminds me of Christian Palin from Random Eyes, and that's a good thing, because Palin's voice is one of my favorites in recent years.  He can be heavy and menacing when he wants to be, such as with "Highways To Nowhere", and he can be super melodic and nimble as well, as with "Chasing the Night".  He has a nice tone, and just a real smooth sound to his vocals that complement the material well.  I do like it when he goes for a grittier approach, and I'd like to hear more of that from time to time, but honestly, his performance here can hardly be faulted, because it's very exact, while maintaining an emotional component.  In other words, he's on point when he sings, but it doesn't sound as though he's rehearsed the material too much for it not to sound as though he's putting himself into the songs.  It's a balanced performance that does him proud.

I wasn't entirely sure what to make of this record when I initially listened to it, because at first blush, it seems a bit unfocused and disjointed.  After repeated listens, I think it's just a band with many strengths, and they're trying to play to all of them as much as they can.  I'd caution against doing that too much on future records, if only because the songs have to be really good in order to ensure that they can back that ambition up with the material to match.  Still, aside from a few less than memorable moments, it's a solid record that truly shows a band with multiple personalities, and yet, those personalities all meld into one another much more completely than a band who might try their hand at varying styles or sounds and can't seem to get a handle on them.  The symphonic elements are a nice touch, and give the record a slightly progressive feel that the band should maybe try and capitalize upon, and yet, when they go straight-ahead and just rock out, they also sound excellent.  If the band can find their direction a tad more specifically and continue to hone their songwriting craft to make things even more memorable, they'll be a contender in the melodic metal field.  As it stands, this is still a really solid and highly listenable effort that deserves some attention, and should be heard by fans of the genre.  Recommended.

76/100

MindMaze - Back From the Edge (2014)

Female-fronted metal is a growing field, as I mentioned previously in my review of Vandroya's debut.  In fact, with bands like Benedictum, Kobra and the Lotus, recent output by White Skull, Epica, Serenity, and the solidification of Floor Janssen as Nighwish's new vocalist, one might say the future is bright for bands taking that direction.  One might also say that since women fronting metal bands has become so trendy that the field is quickly becoming crowded.  Standing out from the pack is essential for an album to really go anywhere or make any kind of impact.  MindMaze is well poised to get some positive attention, at the very least.

Having been unfamiliar with MindMaze prior to receiving review copy, I did just a bit of research to find out more about the band.  According to the press release, the band had already received acclaim for their previous album, "Mask Of Lies", and so far, the reviews I've skimmed over seem to solidify that claim.  Jeff and Sarah Teets, along with drummer Kalin Schweizerhof were apparently also in an earlier incarnation of the band called "Necromance", dating back to 2005, so these guys have toiled in the underground for quite some time trying to make a name for themselves.  I'd have to say that MindMaze is a more fitting moniker for the band, given the lyrics, musical style, and overall feel of the music.

Right away, it's evident that this is a tight production with talented players.  Guitarist Jeff Teets does a great job with his axe, playing interesting riffs and choosing chording that strays from the usual power chord-only chugging you often get in standard, off-the-shelf power metal.  Dare I say, there's a progressive metal vibe all over this CD, and the riffs exemplify that by keeping things interesting.  Of course, some chugging is present, and helps with the heavy factor at times, but overall, Jeff's riff writing skills are impressive.  Drummer Kalin Schwezerhof is proficient as well, with a good sense of rhythm, and a feel for playing in a way that enhances the material without hogging the spotlight too much.  The album's production by Brian J. Anthony helps this as well, because the drums are at the right place in the mix.  Bass guitar is handled by none other than Symphony X bassist Mike LePond.  He does a great job here, as can be imagined, and his bass work is a treat on this album, especially in tracks like "Moment of Flight" where he gets to take the spotlight during the intro and at various points throughout the track where you can hear him doing more than just keeping pace with the riffs.  The same can be said for his work in "The Machine Stops" - he really shows that the bass guitar is an instrument unto itself and not just part of the rhythmic feel of the music.

Vocalist Sarah Teets has a great voice, and utilizes it well throughout the album.  She has good range, though she generally sticks to the alto and lower soprano areas for the bulk of the album.  She apparently knows her voice and limitations, and does well to shine within that framework.  One thing I'll note is that while I enjoyed the tone of her voice immediately, the subtlety of her performance was something that I didn't latch on to right away.  Power metal is usually rife with inflection and overwrought vocal manipulation, and there's very little of that with Sarah's performance here.  Granted, the material doesn't suffer much because of it, but I would suggest she have a listen to some of the current female metal vocal powerhouses like Liv Kristine or Floor Janssen and take some cues from what they're doing for future reference.  Her most spirited performances are probably album highlights like "Dreamwalker", the epic, progressively tinged "The Machine Stops", or "Consequence of Choice".  She also does a great job with the vocal harmonies she records for the overdubs, and the background vocals she records to accent the material.  That stuff all adds quite a bit to the overall sound and feel of those songs.

Overall, this is a solid album of progressively-minded power metal that is a bit of a grower.  I enjoyed this from my first listen, but like Vandroya's debut, I felt like it sounded a touch generic at first blush.  Repeated listens have broken that opinion down, however, in part because I've grown to appreciate Sarah's voice, as well as Jeff's penchant for interesting riffs and solos that combine melody and technique so as to make them more memorable.  Unlike a lot of power metal bands who try and make long songs that meander and never go anywhere, or are just painfully repetitious, both examples of longer songs on this album are well done, and are highlights.  I'm not asking for a full album of said material, but if the band continues to write longer tracks of this caliber, they will certainly be welcome additions to future albums, and should be considered a strength.  I do feel that the songwriting could still use a bit more work, if only because only half of the songs were playing repeatedly in my head hours after listening to the album.  That's no slight, either; most bands are lucky if they get 1 or 2 tracks that you remember after spinning the album.  My only production gripe is that the cymbals sometimes sound a bit muffled in the mix.  I noticed this mostly sitting at my desk at work playing this CD over and over, but even listening via headphones, I felt like cymbal crashes especially sounded a touch weak.  As I mentioned before, Sarah should try and diversify her vocal approach a bit, and keep pushing her instrument to achieve the most from it.  Those 2 elements, along with her perhaps a talented permanent bassist, would help this Pennsylvania collective rise to the top of the female-fronted prog/power metal heap.  For now, I'd say this is recommended to all fans of progressive power metal looking for a good album to sink their teeth into.  Inner Wound Recordings was smart to snap this band up - they should have a bright future ahead of them.

82/100

Theocracy - Theocracy re-issue (2013)

Anyone who has read through a number of posts on this blog over the last few years knows I'm a big Theocracy fan.  Their last 2 albums, "As the World Bleeds" and "Mirror of Souls" are both excellent examples of progressive power metal, and I own both the CD and vinyl issues of both, as well as the 7" vinyl release for the "Wages of Sin" single.  Needless to say, I'm a fan.  That wasn't always the case, however, as I didn't discover them right away when Matt Smith debuted the project a decade ago.  And after I did listen to samples online and heard some of the material, I wasn't immediately taken with it like some were.  I bought the debut, listened to it and shelved it, having been somewhat unsatisfied with Matt's vocal performance and the lack of overly memorable material.  2008's "Mirror of Souls" was a completely different story, as it hit me hard when it came out, and was exactly what I wanted to hear.

Now that Matt and company have established themselves as one of the front runners of the power/prog scene in the US and abroad, Ulterium records has seen fit to re-issue the debut and give it a bit of a proper release.  On the original, the mix was a bit weak, and didn't give the material enough weight.  In addition, Matt used a drum machine for all the drum parts, which didn't really bother me, but compared with what followed, it sounded quite out of place.  This re-issue seeks to fix that by doing 3 things.  First, drummer Shawn Benson re-recorded the drum tracks so the album could have proper drums.  Second, the whole thing has been remixed so that the instruments sound better alongside and in conjunction with one another.  And third, the remaster has given the whole thing a more "full" and "big" sound compared to the original.

For those who were fans of the original, this is going to be a treat.  There are albums that are "remastered" and re-issued to cash in on fan fervor, but often those fall into the "make it louder" category where no real tidying takes place, only volume levels are adjusted.  Some remix/remaster projects legitimately improve the release on multiple levels, and I believe this is a good example of what a little TLC can do to really improve upon something without taking away from what the original was or was trying to accomplish.  When listening to the original and this re-issue back to back, I immediately noticed how much cleaner the mix was in this new version, and you notice a lot of background flourishes, like acoustic guitars, symphonic bits, and keyboard backgrounds that you may not have heard before unless you cranked it up full blast.  In addition, though Matt's vocals are still the original recordings, they sound a lot more like the Matt Smith that Theocracy fans have come to enjoy.

The guitars don't crunch as much as latter Theocracy material, but there's a lot going on here, as the album is a bit more layered because it was just Matt writing, recording, and performing everything on his own, so he could afford to go all out.  Bass guitar is present, but still not very noticeable in the mix, so aside from the low rumble you hear under the guitar and keyboards, you don't get much of that coming through outside of parts where there is no guitar (like during an early portion of "Twist of Fate").  There is a lot of keyboard work on the album, which is more prominent than the 2 albums that followed, and Matt makes good use of the instrument here.  There are a lot of keyboard layers going on, and he makes use of all kinds of effects like bells, a harpsichord sound, and various other symphonic instrument sounds to try and flesh out the sound of the record.  And of course Shawn's drumming on the album is far superior to the original drum machine parts, and makes the album sound so much more vital than it did in its original incarnation.

I'm going to be in the minority here and say that I don't think this is Matt's best work for a number of reasons.  Matt was still developing as a vocalist here, and there are spots where he doesn't show as much control over his vocals as he came to demonstrate on this album's follow-up.  The songs all sound great to me, and the melodies are nice, but I don't feel as though they're quite as catchy or memorable as those on either of the next 2 records.  I liken it to the "Wages of Sin" single - that is a good song, but I understand why it was left off "Mirror of Souls" because it's not as memorable as any of the songs on the album and may have come across as merely filler.  The guitars don't have the authority or presence they ought to, and that takes away slightly from the power the record should have based on the style and sound of the music.  Not to say they don't sound good, but when I crank this album up loud compared with the other 2, it just doesn't hit me as hard.  Even with the remix/remaster, which sounds a lot better than the original, I feel as though the mix is still the tiniest bit claustrophobic at times, in that there are bits that should have a bit more separation.  I know I'm nitpicking here, but Matt set the bar pretty high with "Mirror of Souls" and this re-release still hasn't met that, even though it's still exceedingly good.

Ultimately, fans of Theocracy like myself are going to want to have this in their collection, especially those who missed out on the original CD release and aren't willing to pay a premium on eBay for the original release.  I would say that's a smart move, because this just sounds so much better than the original version.  Folks just discovering Theocracy would do well to wait on this and give either of the band's other 2 albums a listen first, as I feel those records better represent what Theocracy has become as a full band effort.  There's no denying that 10 years on, however, this is still a powerful album that deserves much of the praise lauded upon it.  I just don't personally feel that it's the absolute apex of the style as some fans have tried to assert.  Your mileage may vary, but I still recommend this highly to anyone looking for a quality prog/power metal album.

85/100

More content coming!

I must apologize to the 3 (okay, 2) readers who keep up with this blog, as other than weekly announcements of the playlists for my radio show (are you listening yet?) and updates to my vinyl collection (yay!), it has been slim pickings here of late. I had hoped to have at least weekly content, if not more than weekly, but life sometimes gets in the way. Never fear! I am going to make a more concerted effort to try and rectify that by posting as much content as I can in spurts. That doesn't mean the content will be less quality than it has been, but it should mean that every few days (or couple weeks), you'll see between 2 and 5 posts that are NOT related to my radio show, though videos of my collection updates will likely be part of that process as well.

Speaking of videos, if you haven't visited my YouTube channel yet, I would encourage you to do so and check out all my historical content. In addition to all the long format review videos I have and the collection videos, I will be undertaking a large-scale project to encompass my entire media collection. Aside from the collection videos where I brag about incoming vinyl albums, I plan on doing an album-by-album "Mini-Review" of each CD, cassette, and vinyl album or 7" release in my collection, including demos, re-issues, and variations. One-to-one duplicates (where the cassette, vinyl and/or CD versions are exactly the same) will be passed up. Due to the large size of my music collection (2,500+ CDs, 400+ vinyl albums, 100+ cassettes), some folks think I can't possibly have listened to all the music in my collection, but I have listened to nearly everything, save for a few vinyl oddities or CDs that I purchased almost entirely for collection purposes. That said, I plan on intentionally listening to each and every CD that I have, as well as each vinyl album and cassette that I plan on covering. Each of these mini-reviews will be a video recorded on YouTube and then posted to this blog with a small blurb.

But wait, there's more! I did say "media collection" above, didn't I? So not only will I be covering my entire music collection, but I will also be doing mini-reviews and bits on all my video games, DVDs, some classic VHS videos I have, as well as my comic book collection. I may even include my old magazine collection if I get the urge to, which includes several back-issues of the classic "Video Games & Computer Entertainment" magazine, as well as years-old issues of Heaven's Metal and HM Magazine, along with a few odds and ends (GamePro, EGM, Game Informer, Sega Visions, Turbo Magazine, etc). Of course, as I add more media, I will be including that in the mini-review list. I also hope to continue to do little reviews and blogs on favorite TV shows, movies, and current media.

So while it sounds like this will be a giant, daunting task, this isn't something that will be done overnight, and certainly not something I hope to accomplish in some pre-determined length of time. I simply want to undertake this as a way of sharing my somewhat niche music and media collection with everyone and exposing people to stuff they may not have heard of or may know by name, but have no reference for. Hopefully, I can either help bring nostalgia to some, expose some to new music, movies or games that might be right up their alley, or at the very least, shed more light on the things I enjoy so that others have at least had a chance to hear about them. Stay tuned!

Christmas-themed Vinyl Records

My paltry collection of Christmas-themed vinyl: all two of them!

New Video - My Media Collection

So I have begun to record videos of me showing off my media collection.  I am starting with some current vinyl releases and will eventually show off my entire vinyl and CD collection, and at some point will start to include my video games, DVDs, comic books, etc.  This video is just an intro to all that, laying the groundwork for what's to come.

Hopefully everyone will enjoy seeing my collection!