Ladies and gentlemen!

Since I'm going to see Volbeat with Anthrax and Crobot at TD Place in Ottawa next Wednesday, I decided to give their current record a chance. The band which is often described as a modern mixture of Elvis Presley and Metallica wrote a couple of authentic Western inspired tunes for this album. Fans of alternative rock and soft melodic metal music should check this Danish dynamite quartet out.

Volbeat is a commercially successful Danish rock quartet that plays an entertaining mixture of diverse genres such as hard rock, heavy metal and rockabilly. The band has a weakness for American topics and movies. After exploiting gangster novels and movies in the past, this fifth studio record “Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies” mostly exploits the fascination for the Far West. Some tracks don’t follow this general guiding line though and the band tries to be as diversified as possible on their fourteen or fifteen new tracks. Despite the addition of former Anthrax guitarist Robert Caggiano, Volbeat overall stays extremely faithful to its original sound and has probably even become more accessible than before with this release.

After the instrumental introduction “Let’s Shake Some Dust” that would easily fit on a country rock album or the score of a modern Western movie, the band kicks the album off with the catchy “Pearl Hart” that represents everything the band stands for. The riffs are powerful but never aggressive, the guitar harmonies are beautiful but not that memorable, the rhythm section with drums and bass guitar is audibly solid yet inoffensive and the charismatic vocals that sound like a mixture of James Hetfield and Elvis Presley are really charming and catchy. The track comes around with good melodies, inspired lyrics that tell a nice tale and a quite solid chorus executed by a band that knows how to get some airplay on rock radio stations. The whole thing comes around in consistent and radio-friendly three and a half minutes. The band’s obvious song writing strengths are also its artistic limits. Most of the songs on here are really nice to listen to but offer nothing truly memorable, profound or touching. They are all pretty much exchangeable. Instead of describing the first real track on the album, I could have chosen “The Nameless One” or “Cape of Our Hero” as well since they have almost the same approach and structure. It’s the kind of record that you could listen to while having some good time with your friends. Those who are listening to rock and metal albums will enjoy some of the few beefier riffs and the guest appearances by famous genre artists like King Diamond while those who enjoy softer rock or pop music will fall for the smooth melodies and catchy vocal lines. From that point of view, this record is a perfect compromise as most people will get something they enjoy from it. The problem is that almost nobody will thoroughly enjoy this whole conformist release. 

One of the few more outstanding tracks is obviously the darker and little bit heavier “Room 24” that features King Diamond’s distinctive, occult and theatrical guest vocals that harmonize well with Michael Poulson’s darker, grooving and ingratiating timbre. Still, this song really sounds much closer to a regular Volbeat song than to one of King Diamond’s bleak offerings. The band missed the occasion to break its creative chains and come around with a truly distinctive tune. The song is quite good but definitely nothing more.

The band’s attempt creating a sound inspired by the tales of the Far West works best in the final tracks that end the album on a positive note. “Lonesome Rider” is a nostalgic yet energizing rockabilly song with soulful female guest vocals by Canadian indie rock and psychobilly singer Sarah Blackwood. Still, this catchy, joyful and rhythm orientated track adds nothing new to Volbeat’s typical soundscapes. The epic “Doc Holliday” comes around with casual banjo sounds, cool backing vocals in the chorus and crunching heavy to thrash metal riffs in the verses. This song is already more atmospheric, cinematic and also heavier than most of Volbeat’s tracks. With a harsher production, this track could easily pass as a righteous Metallica tune. Creative album closer “Our Loved Ones” opens around with harp, harmonica and acoustic guitar and slowly unfolds as an epic mid-tempo stomper where you can almost see the lone ranger riding off into the sunset at the end of a movie.

In the end, Volbeat is a talented band with its own distinctive and successful sound. As soon as the band moves out of its usual comfort zone, things start getting truly interesting. The thematic tunes with a slight country touch towards the end of the record are quite epic highlights. These moments aren’t frequent enough to make this record more than an enjoyable above average release. The first two thirds of this album include several songs that sound a little bit too exchangeable and feel like safe writing by numbers single candidates. They fail to add anything fresh to the sound and are lacking a few edges that would make them stand out. Faithful Volbeat supporters can’t go wrong with this record and fans of hard rock tunes about the Far West should also get their hands on this solid release. Those who are looking for some heavier material should look elsewhere and if you want to get a first really good impression of the band, you should rather go for the even more diversified, emotional and gripping “Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood”.

Final rating: 7/10

Please support the band and check out the following links:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/volbeat

Homepage: http://www.volbeat.dk/3/home/

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/VolbeatVEVO

Ladies and gentlemen,

I have been waiting several years for the first full length release of this unique Iraqi quintet. Acrassiacuda is the name of a dangerous black scorpion in Africa and the Middle East.

The band formed back in 2001, played several local concerts and recorded two demos under the regime of Saddam Hussein. After the Iraqi regime change, the band received serious death threats from Islamic militants who thought that the band was worshipping the devil. Due to these threats and ongoing violence in Baghdad after Iraq War, the band members fled to Syria around 2006 and later on to Turkey around 2007. The band's difficult situation was covered by several media and the critically acclaimed documentary "Heavy Metal in Baghdad" made them famous in the whole world in 2007.

They were finally granted refugee status in the United States of America and arrived on the East Coast in early 2009. The band met members of several North American bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Metallica, Ministry, Testament and Voivod who supported them. Acrassicauda's first EP was professionally recorded and released in early 2010. After several line-up changes and short tours, the different band members took their time to settle down and take care of their families.

In the middle of last year, the band started a Kickstarter campaign to finance the production, promotion, redording and shipping of their first independant full length record. Many fans supported the project and the band accumulated more than thirty-seven thousand US dollars. After many months of hard work, Acrassicauda officially released "Gilgamesh" on April 4th, 2015. No matter what you think about their music, this band deserves a lot of respect for everything they have been through in their lives and for what they have achieved as artists so far.

Here are my thoughts about this historical record:  

Acrassicauda is the famous band from war-ridden Iraq that was featured in the famous documentary “Heavy Metal in Baghdad” almost eight years ago. The band had to relocate numerous times from Iraq to Syria and Turkey before they finally arrived in the United States of America about six years ago. One year later, the band’s first professionally recorded EP was released which featured four highly addicting, nearly progressively diversified and technically appealing tracks. After many difficult years, the band had finally realized its most ambitious dream and I’m still regularly listening to this record. Over the past five years, the band moved out of media focus and things got rather quiet apart of a couple of concerts and line-up changes. Last year, Acrassicauda started a Kickstarter campaign to gather a surprisingly elevated amount of money to record, produce, promote and ship their first studio album which has finally been released last month.

Just like their first professional release five years earlier, Acrassicauda’s first full length record fortunately still includes diversified song writing with meditative melodic middle parts, occasional Middle Eastern folk elements and a technically appealing mixture of groove and thrash metal. Those who are expecting a nostalgic folk metal release because of the historic concept chosen by the band should know better. Acrassicauda has progressed towards a more modern sound with metalcore and especially nu metal influences that could come from bands such as Killswitch Engage, Lamb Of God and Stone Sour. Some vocal melodies even remind me of bands such as Drowning Pool, Godsmack and Soulfly. If there weren’t a few efficiently employed folk samples, some diversified tribal drum patterns and a couple of melodic backing vocals in the key of traditional Middle Eastern chants, one could think that this is the record of an American veteran nu metal group inspired by groove metal bands such as Pantera.

I’m definitely not a traditional metal purist and I like to see a band progress but I’m missing the energizing balance between traditional and modern elements from “Only the Dead See the End of War” five years earlier. Apart of the few positive elements mentioned above, quite a few things are really bothering me here.

First of all, the vocals are less diversified and organic than before as most parts are either annoyingly screamed or whispered over nerve wrecking modern sound effects. It’s really tough to make it through the dystopian vocal effects of “The Cost of Everything & the Value of Nothing” without getting massive headaches and being reminded of the horrible era fifteen years ago when aggressive short-haired young white adults where jumping across a stage and yelling about their emotional confusion over harsh riffs and modern beats while the medias were trying to sell this kind of music as metal. The song I have just mentioned sounds in fact worse than what Limp Bizkit and their acolytes released nearly twenty years ago.

This leads me to mention the rather weak production that doesn’t sound harmonious, organic and simple at all but which is rather overloaded with useless sound effects. This is not only the case in the more aggressive tracks where exaggerated multiple vocal effects, uselessly distorted guitar sounds and a canny drum sound that buries the bass guitar fusion to a irritating sound. Even a calmer track such as the ballad “Requiem for a Reverie” that finally comes around with smooth vocals, soft tribal percussions and a few harmonious acoustic guitar melodies is destroyed by the echoing sound effects of the repetitive drum play.

Another problem is the weak song structures on this release. I don’t mind experimental writing and don’t need a catchy chorus in every song but Acrassicauda definitely fails to come around with any moving sing-along part, gripping riff passage or epic closure that lives up to this conceptual record. The tracks are all quite short and end rather suddenly without leaving any deeper impression. Let’s take a track like “Elements” as an example. The song starts quickly without any introduction and features harsh up-tempo riffs and angry vocals that aren’t a far call from Testament. The track is suddenly interrupted by a breakdown featuring Middle Eastern chants. The next step is a mid-tempo chorus that has some potential but which is too hectic and rushed to unfold. The middle passage features a nervous guitar solo that only adds to the existing cacophony. The track ends with extended Middle Eastern chants over slow yet noisily chugging riffs before the track quickly fades out without any proper conclusion. In less than three confusing minutes, the band used four or five promising ideas in an extremely inefficient way since the different elements aren’t fleshed out and only scratch the surface of their potential. This is one of the record’s biggest issues. Only a few short transitional interludes, numerous smart introductions based on traditional Middle Eastern folk music and some short but well performed guitar solos are holding this mess of an album somewhat together and giving us some highlights where the band’s different ideas take their time to unfold.

The only really good track is the album closer “Rebirth” which takes its time to unfold its different song writing ideas in four and a half minutes. The hypnotizing melodic vocals are a welcome change of style, the riffs sound a little bit more atmospheric and epic in the chorus and the smooth finale with longing guitar sounds, melancholic piano sounds and sound samples of a crying baby ends the record on a coherent note.

This stressful ride is over after forty intense yet unsatisfying minutes. After the band’s great first professional output, I would have expected something more profound, progressive and thought-out than nine rather shallow tracks plus three instrumental tunes on a brazenly short release. I’m glad this band got so much support from their fans to bring this record out and achieve its goals after everything the members have been through but these reasons are no excuses for this weak final product which is definitely below average and doesn’t live up to its hype. In the end, I can only recommend this record to modern metal fans that like to listen to commercial metalcore that was a big hype ten years earlier, nu metal that got its breakthrough more than fifteen years ago and traditional groove metal that became more and more present twenty years in the past.

Final rating: 40%

Please support the band and check out the following links:

Bandcamp: http://acrassicauda.bandcamp.com/releases

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/acrassicauda

Homepage: http://acrassicauda.com/

Mesdames et Messieurs!

Après le tournoi, c'est avant le tournoi! Une semaine après la défaite amère de l'Impact de Montréal contre le CF América en finale de la Ligue des Champions au stade olympique de Montréal, je serai déjà de retour dans la métropole québécoise afin d'assister au match aller de la semi-finale du championnat canadien qui opposera l'Impact de Montréal au Toronto FC. Ce sera également l'ouverture officielle du stade Saputo pour la saison 2015 vu que tous les autres matchs ont été repoussés ou joués au stade olympique. Je prévois également acheter quelques souvenirs intéressants sur place. J'ai déjà hâte à mercredi soir. Allez, Montréal!

Ladies and gentlemen,

Here is another interesting discovery. Akuma Taigun is a young international quartet of musicians from Brazil, Canada and Japan that got together in late 2013 to worship J-Rock and Visual Kei music. The promising underground band is influenced by bands such as Versailles, X Japan and ザ☆メンテナンス among others. The band's first EP "Rise of the Devil" sounds quite promising and a first conceptual full length release will probably follow in October 2015. Due to its international members, this group has the potential to charm both Japanese and foreign rock and metal music fans. Let's support this brave, globalized and multi-cultural project. Make sure to check out the band's Bandcamp presence. If you are looking for similar projects, you could also check out the Canadian-Japanese project ゼ[Ze]. ありがとうございます。

Akuma Taigun means Demon Horde and is the name of an international quartet of musicians from Brazil, Canada and Japan that are clearly influenced by Japanese culture and music. The band’s first EP can be roughly translated as "Rise of the Devil". The record is available in five different physical versions with different amazing cover artworks and a different sixth and last song on each version. This style follows the exaggerated, expensive and not very fan-friendly publication tactics of many popular Japanese bands. At least, it’s also possible to purchase a regular digital copy for a really fair price and I would suggest you to check this option out.

Musically, this band is as diversified and open-minded as their idols Sex Machineguns, Jupiter, Iudakebancho, Ino Head Park and D. Some tracks like the long opener “攻撃“ and the rather short “嵐戦“ are influenced by groove and thrash metal and feature raw death metal vocals. Other songs like “あゆか“ are much more melodic and can be described as heavy or power metal tracks with catchy clean vocals even though they sound a little bit nasal and out of tone. This track comes probably closest to the Japanese Visual Kei sound and is a definite highlight on the debut. The final “あなたと。。。“ is maybe even more interesting as it features traditional Japanese folk influences that aren’t overused and end the record on an epic, melodic and memorable note.

In the end, Akuma Taigun’s first effort is diversified, energizing and entertaining. Especially the more melodic tracks towards the end of the record show the band’s capacity to write melodic riffs and catchy vocal lines, showcases the quartet’s solid musicianship and exposes its large variety of influences. On the other side, this release sometimes lacks direction, stability and structure as good moments and rather average ideas go hand in hand on this record. Musical diversity has always been an important element for Japanese bands or groups that try to imitate that sound but Akuma Taigun sometimes tries to explore too many styles at the same time. Another obvious flaw is the production. The guitar sound is a little bit too low and dirty for this genre and the vocals sound sometimes limited, nasal and out of breath despite their unique potential.

J-Rock and Visual Kei fans should keep an eye on this promising young band. Akuma Taigun still has a long way to go but their debut already sounds promising enough for future endeavors. If you have a couple of bucks left over, this international quartet definitely deserves some sincere encouragement.

Final rating: VII out of X points

Please support the band and check out the following links:

Bandcamp: http://akumataigun.bandcamp.com/album/--2

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/akumataigun