Heavy Metal Ketchup #6: Eluveitie, Dragonforce & more

Metal in 2008 is a lot of different things to different people. Personally, I'll take the druids-in-the-woods thing over the dorks-playing-Guitar Hero thing. But feel free to differ, of course!

Dignity, Project Destiny (Napalm): Vaguely pompy "melodic hard rock" (their label claims) from "Austria/Sweden" with a mysterious album cover featuring an ethereal staircase of ice leading up to nowhere; mostly pretty bleh, but they do a Celtic metal version of Irish/Argentine songster Chris DeBurgh's 1983 #34 hit "Don't Pay the Ferryman," how cool is that? (As long as you're not the unpaid ferrryman, I mean.)

Dragonforce, Ultra Beatdown (Roadrunner): Okay, you already know these guys, so I won't dwell on them. Just a few things: 1. They look like really fun people, and sound like fun people in interviews, too. 2. They may well be the fastest example in history of a rock band whose marketing concept became their sole reason for existence, for which they should probably be both ashamed and respected. 3. I like how their album cover looks like a video game, like Neil Young's Trans or Billy Idol's Cyberpunk or something from centuries ago like that. Very back to the future. 4. Some of their lyrics ("Highway of emptiness outside the burning world/Rise again this quest for our salvation") read like Christian rock, but maybe glory metal is the same thing when you get down to it. 5. They have some nifty guitar solos. 6. Those guitars solos are located in songs that are impossible to get through (unless you're a lot better at video games than me, at least).

Drawing Voices, Drawing Voices (Hydra Head): Aaron Turner from Isis makes sundry sound-effect plinks and leaves the kitchen faucet dripping, assisting Hydra Head in its dogged crusade to become the most boring metal label on earth.

Eluveitie, Slania (Nuclear Blast): A few months back, I attended the Pagan Fest stop at B.B. King Blues Club in New York: four barnstorming bands from far Northern Europe, all bringing Renaissance faire forms and ancient pre-Christian mythology (and perhaps some lutes and jousting) into the world of extreme metal. Eluveitie -- a hurdy-gurdying co-ed octet-or-nonet from Switzerland -- proved especially entertaining. On their current album, I prefer the more folk-music parts (flutey "Anagantios," placid "Giamonios," male-female counterpointed jig "Slanias Song" ) to the more metal parts. Their earlier number "Your Gaulish War" obviously should have been called "Your Goulash War" instead.

Endeverafter, Kiss or Kill (Razor & Tie): Billed as a "return to real rock" or some such baloney, this L.A. band is actually a weird case study whose specific attributes I don't remember ever encountering before; i.e., I love the guitars, especially at the beginnings of songs (speedy NWOBHM riffola in "I Wanna Be Your Man" and "Poison"; excellent Van Halen rip in "From the Ashes of Sin"), but I hate hate hate the whine-stained Clear Channel screamo vocals. "All Night"'s semi-.38 Special/Rick Springfield hard pop is the one bearable exception; closing ballad "Long Way Home" quickly wears out its welcome after starting okay. Otherwise, this album makes me embarrassed for an entire generation.

Comments

[ella]

Heavy Metal’s popularity is and has been on the rise due to its many bands and increased guitar technology.
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Ella
Win a share of 1 Million Euros for 5.50

[debra]

"Your Goulash War"...OK, I can't stop laughing and it's all your fault!