April 2005 Archives
CD, Touch and Go 1995
Track list: Indian Love Song - Better Go Home Now - Odd Couple - Kim's Dirt - Everything's Fucked - The Last Night - Dirty Equation
I've always enjoyed Warren Ellis's work with the Bad Seeds and thus diving into his own band, Dirty Three, was rather obvious thing to do. This, their second album, is a great piece of instrumental rock. The songs fall into two overlapping categories: slower ballads and almost post-rock cacophony build-ups. Especially the latter ones (Dirty Equation, for example) are brilliant: Mick Turner and Jim White beat a steadily repeating pulsating rhythm on which Warren Ellis plays violin with great elegance. ****
CD, Virgin Records 2000
Track list: Taste in Men - Days Before You Came - Special K - Spite & Malice - Passive Aggressive - Black-Eyed - Blue American - Slave to the Wage - Commercial for Levi - Haemoglobin - Narcoleptic - Peeping Tom
Black Market Music was my first touch to Placebo when it came out, and it left me cold. Now I've grown to enjoy Placebo, and I regard it highly. It's one of the best Placebo albums, really. There's no "Every Me Every You", but instead several very good songs, which form a very solid album. Highly recommended! *****
CD, Sony BMG 2005
Track list: Kovemmat kädet - Matkalaulu - Oo siellä jossain mun - Päiväkoti - Mummola - Matoja - Auta mua - Onni - Olkaa yksin ja juoskaa karkuun - Maria Magdalena - Salla tahtoo siivet
Something good came out of Finnish Popstars. Paula and Mira met, were eliminated and started their own band. PMMP was responsible for the super-annoying "Rusketusraidat" summer hit, but this new album is something else. It's basically pop rock, but with twists. First of all - Paula is quite clever with her lyrics. The songs have interesting hooks and it seems like every song is imitating some different source. The result is intriguing. I certainly didn't expect anything this good. Amazing. ****
CD, Candlelight Records 2005
Track list: Brutal Destruction - I Need Enemies - Torment Dominator - Man Slayer - Barbarian Steel - Corpse - Veincut Exctasy - Immortal Abomination
French Belef blasts out extreme black metal with maniacal speed. Fortunately the production is decent - had they fallen for underground sound, this would've been complete rubbish. Now it at least sounds pretty good. However, it certainly lacks control. Being such a violent album, the songs are also a bit too long; five minutes of monotonous blasting is too much. **
CD, Osmose Productions 2005
Track list: Blood Oath - Heretic Death Call - Profane Savagery - Baphomet Throne Exaltation - Holocaust Summoning - Hellstorm of Evil Vengeance - Darkness Attack - Scorned and Crucified - Upheaval of Satanic Might
The cover says it all: aggressive, primitive, satanic and underground black metal. The tracks sound all exactly the same (except the intro), especially as the production values are very low. It's all the same fuzzy jumble. Fans of extreme black metal might like this, but I'd certainly appreciate it more if the album had better production. **
CD, CCP Records 2005
Track list: An Friedhofsmauern - Ravenway - From the Ashes of Purgatory - Basilisk - Lucifer's Tower - Worm of Fire - The Brotherslayer - Brenn i Helvete
It's pretty hard to say anything positive about Christcrushing Anthems. It's an example of mediocrity at it's darkest: the songs aren't really very interesting (well, An Friedhofsmauern is a pleasant exception), the vocals are just too typical, the album doesn't sound good (for example it's pretty hard to believe that the band actually has a drummer - sounds too clean, too much like a machine). **
CD, Candlelight Records 2005
Track list: Arrival of Non Parallel Aeons - Final Inversion - Armageddon's Evolution - Chant of Rebel Angels (intro) - FFF (Freesing Fields of Infinity) - Xenomorphized Soul Devoured - Disconnected Minds - Celestial Interference - Black Manifest (The Sermon to the Masses) - Dept 666 - The Loss and Curse of Reverence
Crionics, the Emperor of Poland. There's no doubt where these guys get their inspiration from: Armageddon's Evolution is newer Emperor all over again. I'd go as far as call it a pastiche, really. To emphasize the obvious, they've even added a carbon copy cover of The Loss and Curse of Reverence as a bonus track. So - do you like Emperor? If you do, you'll like Crionics. It's that simple. ****
CD, Mute Records 2005
Track list: Deanna (Acoustic) - The Mercy Sea (Acoustic) - City Of Refuge (Acoustic) - The Moon Is In The Gutter - Six Strings That Drew Blood - Rye Whiskey - Running Scared - Black Betty - Scum - Girl At The Bottom Of My Glass - The Train Song - Cocks & Asses - Blue Bird - Helpless - God's Hotel - (I'll Love You) Till The End of Tomorrow - Cassiel's Song - Tower Of Song - What Can I Give You? - What A Wonderful World - Rainy Night in Soho - Lucy (Version 2) - Jack The Ripper (Acoustic) - Sail Away - There's No Night Out In The Jail - That's What Jazz Is To Me - The Willow Garden - Ballad of Robert Moore & Betty Coltrane - King Kong Kitchee Kitchee Kee Mi O - Knoxville Girl - Where The Wild Roses Grow - O'Malley's Bar - Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum - Red Right Hand (Scream 3 version) - Little Empty Boat - Right Now I'm A-Roaming - Come Into My Sleep - Black Hair (Band Version) - Babe, I Got You Bad - Sheep May Safely Graze - Opium Tea - Grief Came Riding - Bless His Everloving Heart - Good Good Day - Little Janey's Gone - I Feel So Good - Shoot Me Down - Wing Low - Little Ghost Song - Everything Must Converge - Nocturama - She's Leaving You - Under This Moon
Let's state the obvious first: this is an absolute must-buy collection for anyone who appreciates what Nick Cave has done with the Bad Seeds. There's no Nick Cave solo material, the Bad Seeds are backing him on every track except Time Jesum..., which is done with the Dirty Three (featuring Warren Ellis, a Bad Seed). There are some obvious inferior tracks, who certainly deserve to be left out of the albums, but then again, some b-sides are just excellent. There are also interesting movie soundtrack songs and what not. It would've been pity the miss the acoustic versions of Deanna, The Mercy Seat and City of Refuge, originally published on a bonus 7" in 1990, as they are simply brilliant. And I can't be the only to actually prefer Blixa Bargeld over Kylie Minogue in Where the Wild Roses Grow? *****
CD, Dragonheart 2005
Track list: Nuda veritas - Lifelong Hope - My Desdemona - Miss Murderess - How Can Heaven Love Me - Good Mourning - Henceforth - Keep the Secret - Down-Hearted - Dead and Gone
What a brilliant name gone to waste. Macbeth is a beautiful tragedy, but at least Malae Artes fails to impress me of this Macbeth's quality. Replace the male vocalist Andreas and it would be a notch better, but probably a bit average still. There's a cover of Sarah Brightman's How Can Heaven Love Me, but even that doesn't really stand out from the band's own songs. Fans of bands like Evanescence might get something out of this, I don't. **
