Kokumaromilk – Kokumaromilk

September 24, 2014 in Reviews by Sebastian Kluth

Godsmack – 1000HP

September 17, 2014 in Reviews by Sebastian Kluth

Dear readers of my blog,

here comes my review of Anthrax' new DVD/BluRay release "Chile on hell" which is so far definitely my favourite release of the year. Enjoy!

Sebastian Kluth

Anthrax' "Chile On Hell" is not only the best live release so far this year but also the best show of the band that was captured by cameras and microphones. The Chilean crowd is simply out of this world. Right from the opening riffs of "Among The Living", the entire crowd is singing along to the melodies and lyrics of this track, is getting involved into a giant circle pit with some fans sitting on the shoulders of others and some devotees are even enlightening a big red Bengal fire. This incredible crowd never gets tired throughout the entire show and is celebrating classics, cover songs and new material alike. The enthusiastic admirers are contributing to several intense goosebump moments. It's incredible to hear them singing the entire pre-chorus and chorus of "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)" before the song even gets started, to watch them doing Dio's famous horns sign during the intense rendition of "In The End",  to see them doing an unchained wardance to "Indians", to hear them yelling out the chorus with Joey Belladonna during "In My World", to see them doing a big mosh pit during the Slayer cover "Raining Blood" which was dedicated to late Jeff Hanneman who died only days before this show and finally to see them celebrating enthusiastically to the closing Trust cover "Antisocial". I've never ever seen such a great crowd as they even beat several one hundred thousand unchained Brazilians celebrating Iron Maiden on their "Rock In Rio" record. Every single fan seems to get involved in passionate and yet respectful hysteria for two unforgettable hours. I've never wished that much that I had been at a concert than when I first watched this.

It's not only the amazing crowd that makes this release so memorable. I've seen several Anthrax shows and while they always perform with passion, I've never seen them so vivid as on this output. The amazing crowd reactions must have been contagious. Joey Belladonna is doing one of his finest vocal performances in a long time. I was surprised how clean his voice sounds on this release and how he even hits the high notes while running around and interacting constantly with the crowd. Hands down, this man is a gifted front man and entertainer and this is why I'm so glad he's back with Anthrax as nobody else compares to him. Scott Ian is constantly jumping and running around with a big smile on his face. His angry backing vocals are extremely solid and he even hits some higher notes in the opening of "In My World" that impressed me quite a lot. In addition to this, his killer riffs are still performed with passion and precision. Frank Bello is walking, headbanging and dancing around the stage and never ever stands still. His extremely enthusiastic vocal performance during "I'm The Man" is absolutely contagious and his bass play is very powerful. Charlie Benante's drumming is as tight as it can be and still looks effortless because he is having so much fun on stage. He keeps smiling and making funny faces throughout the entire show. He even gets to play a short drum solo right before "I'm The Man". It's just long enough to show his great talent and short enough to get the crowd moving for the energizing encore. Fellow drummers, please take notes on this essential, precise and short performance as nobody wants to listen to drum solos over six minutes or so. New guitarist Jonathan Donais plays very well but looks a little bit shier and more introspective than the other members. He's got his own personality I guess but he slightly feels out of place. I guess he simply needs some more time with the band to get used to this new situation. From a purely technical point of view, his performance is spot on though.

The set list of this concert is phenomenal. It contains the three best songs from the band's amazing last effort "Worship Music", the greatest classics including the six thrash metal milestones that open the legendary "Among The Living" release and a bunch of amazing cover tracks from AC/DC, Joe Jackson, Slayer, Stormtroopers Of Death and Trust. Some people keep complaing about the high number of cover songs during  Anthrax' shows. If you take a look at the incendiary crowd reactions to these tracks and the way Anthrax performs these renditions, you do realize why these guys are still including so many of them and I don't want to miss these tracks. Anthrax' cover tracks have always been amazing in my opinion. On a sidenote, the DVD version of this release seems to omit two tracks from the original concert which are the Joe Jackson cover "Got The Time" as well as "Deathrider". It's possible that these tracks are included on the BluRay release though as I've read other reviews where analysts would talk about these songs as well. If you can choose between both versions, you should go for the BluRay variant.

From time to time, the outstanding concert is interrupted by very short sequences showing other Anthrax shows, the band backstage, fellow musicians commenting on thirty years of Anthrax, fans praising the band or Scott Ian on the set of a TV show. A couple of snippets from the band's last studio album are played during these sequences, for example "The Devil You Know", "The Giant" and "Judas Priest". These breaks are very short and only about one to two minutes long each and really don't bother the enjoyment of the energizing concert at all. It would have been interesting if the band had included a little documentary about its career as a bonus but that's not the case and this release only focuses on the music and a few short additional gimmicks.

From a technical point of view, the sound is crystal clear and yet absolutely authentic. One can hear the crowd very well but the vocals and the instruments also sound very sharp. It's definitely an honest live release as one can still hear a couple of small technical mistakes here and there. The image is perfect as well but some people might not like several quick cuts, shaky camera passages when Joey Belladonna is running around with a camera on stage and a few split-screen passages. I think these little technical elements make the whole release even more diverting, energizing and original. These elements are not overused as on Iron Maiden's "Death On The Road" release for example. If these elements bother you, I guess you're really just nitpicking.

In the end, this concert and release come extremely close to perfection. If the DVD release had included the two missing tracks and if Jonathan Donais' performance had been a little bit more enthusiastic, I would have given the perfect score to this output. Still, this is an absolutely essential release for any Anthrax fan, any thrash metal maniac and anyone who cares about authentic, energizing and original rock or metal music in general. Believe me, you won't regret anything if you purchased this release as soon as you possibly can. For me, this is by far the best metal release in the year 2014 and already my very favourite live record ever. You may argue that I shouldn't judge this output shortly after its initial release but this is one of these few and special releases that simply blow you away from the very first second and I couldn't stop celebrating this masterpiece. If you listen and watch this release, just make sure you don't destroy your home by getting caught in a giant Chilean mosh.

Concert review: Sonata Arctica, Delain & Xandria live at Mavericks, Ottawa (10/09/14)

Last week I went to see quite an interesting concert in downtown Ottawa at Mavericks. A lot of people had the same idea and decided to fill the small metal pub on a Wednesday night at 7 p.m. to see the Finnish melodic power metal legends Sonata Arctica as well as the opening bands which were the Dutch symphonic metal band Delain as well as the German symphonic metal outfit Xandria in a brandnew line-up including a new Dutch singer and a new live bassist.

The first band to hit the stage was Xandria around 7:35 p.m. I had seen the band back in 2008 in Cologne with old singer Lisa Middelhauve and again at Castle Rock Festival in Mülheim an der Ruhr in 2012 with another singer called Manuela Kraller. Over the years the band had evolved from a more commercial and soft gothic metal act to a progressive symphonic metal outfit with epic dimensions. The band's concert last week was by far their best performance I have seen so far. This is largely due to the excellent new record "Sacrificium" which I bought at the show and which is a solid candidate for my favourite record of the year. The band performed with grace and energy and especially the two new members convinced me. New singer Dianne van Giersbergen made a charming appearance, interacted constantly with a steadily growing crowd and performed very well from a technical point of view by hitting pretty much all of the high notes. Italian live bassist Fabio d'Amore performed with energy and often had a big smile on his face. It really felt as if he was already an irreplacable part of Xandria to me. Even though the band's set was rather short with five songs from the two last records played in a little bit more than twenty-five minutes, this was actually the best part of the whole night. The band managed to deliver five highly diversified tracks that represent the new image of Xandria extremely well. They played anything from an epic symphonic metal hymn over shorter and harder tracks with catchy choruses to more laid-back ballads with soaring vocals. At the end of their set, I definitelty wanted to hear more and the crowd seemed to share my opinion. I have rarely seen an opening band getting such a warm welcome by a crowd.

About half an hour later, the second opening band entered the stage to promote its very good current release "The Human Contradiction" which I also bought at the show in a limited edition. One thing that stroke me was that singer Charlotte Wessels was smiling throughout the entire set. She was in an excellent form and in addition to this, she was absolutely enjoying her presence on stage and constantly interacting with an energized crowd. The band chose a solid set of around ten catchy, energizing and fast tracks that sounded fresh and made the crowd move quite a bit. Many of the songs actually work much better on stage than on the band's studio records. I really liked the band's furious approach as opposed to the more elegant album versions. I had seen Delain before at Amphi Festival V in Cologne back in 2009 where the band had already performed very well. This time, Delain were even more passionate and really transformed the stage into their safe home where all musicians felt at ease. Apart of the energizing opening tracks of the set, I must cite "The Gathering" and "We Are The Others" as highlights of the show because many people in the crowd sang along to these anthems and I'm not only talking about the fans who already knew these songs but about almost anybody at the show. Even though I slightly prefered Xandria's performance, Delain was extremely engaging and got an even greater feedback from the crowd. I even heard people calling out for one more song after the band's set of forty-five minutes or so which isn't all that usual for an opening band. 

The location was very well filled and probably almost sold out when main act Sonata Arctica hit the stage. They started the show ten minutes later than announced and were still silently rushing through the crowd and to the backstage minutes before the beginning of the show. Maybe that's why the band looked slightly nervous at the beginning and didn't perform the first two tracks very well. Especially the vocals were quite a bit out of tone. Even the crowd seemed to realize that something was going wrong there. But from the third song on, things got much better. The band regained its self-confidence and singer Tony Kakko interacted more and more with the crowd. Sometimes, it was really hard to understand what he was actually saying because he was speaking extremely fast and with a strong accent but his appearance was sympathetic and he made a lot of jokes as well. The music started to improve as well and a first highlight that really moved me was the excellent performance of "Replica". The band performed a total of four tracks from its excellent debut album "Ecliptica" which will be released in a re-recorded fifteenth anniversary edition in October 2014. To my positive surprise, the band's more recent material worked better on stage than on the albums. I actually liked the emotional performance of "I Have A Right" and the catchy homage to the band's hometown in form of "Cloud Factory". After fifteen bad opening minutes followed sixty memorable minutes that made the whole crowd call out for an encore. So the band came back after only two minutesto perform another twenty minutes of additional material. Especially the performance of the speedy and melodic anthem "Wolf & Raven" as well as the catchy and energizing closer "Don't Say A Word" followed by a funny rendition of the fast-paced drinking song "Vodka" were absolute stand-out moments of the night. After far more than ninety minutes, Sonata Arctica almost thanked every fan in a very emotional manner. The crowd thanked the band with minute-long enthusiastic cheering. Even though I came to the show for Delain and especially Xandria in the first place, I really enjoyed my first Sonata Arctica concert and I guess I would go and see them again on stage. When I left the location around quarter to midnight, I had a big smile on my face and I still saw several band members walking around, taking pictures with the fans, giving signatures or having a chat at the merchandise section.

The next interesting concerts in Ottawa are coming very soon, so stay tuned for more exclusive show reports on my blog. I hope you had some fun reading this.

"Di Renjie: Shen Du Long Wang" or "Young Detective Dee: Rise Of The Sea Dragon" is a prequel to "Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Dragon Flame". It takes place in the beginning years of Tang Dynasty under the reign of the weak Emperor Gaozong and just a few years before his cruel wife Wu Zetian would take his position and declare the second Zhou dynasty for fifteen years. This second movie shows us a young detective who arrives at the imperial city and has to face a lot of adversary, jealousy and mistrust. The case itself features two different story lines. First of all, there is a giant sea monster controlled by a mysterious enemy that attacks the imperial fleet. The other story features the beautiful courtesan Yin who is about to be sacrificed in order to appease the Gods and therefor the sea monster but who gets first kidnapped by a gang of thieves and later on by a strange human lizard creature. Both stories are loosely bound together and lead the detective and his new colleagues and friends to an adventurous mission on Bat Island.

If you liked the first movie of the franchise, my guess is that you will also appreciate the sequel. It's really a matter of nuance if you prefer the first or the second movie as both pretty much have the same flaws and strengths. Just as the first instalment, the sequel convinces with elegant and typically exaggerated fighting scenes in Tsui Hark's unique signature style that goes back to classic Hongkong movies of the late eighties and early nineties like "A Chinese Ghost Story" or "Once Upon A Time In China". I must admit that the over-the-top fighting scenes on the ships towards the end of the movie are probably the most impressive sequences of both movies.

The modern elements can be found in several decent CGI effects for the monsters in this movie as well as during the destruction of the fleet and the showdown on and around Bat Island. I must admit that I thought that some of these modern elements did not fit to the historical settings which are colourful and beautiful to watch but not always authentic. It's simply strange to see ultra-modern visual elements in a movie that takes place in the seventh century. I prefer the more limited but authentic settings of more traditional Hongkong movies.

While the first movie had some more investigative elements, the sequel only features a couple of these. Detective Dee surely passes as a smart person and some of his investigative methods are still really impressive. Sadly, the movie quickly reveals friends and foes which means that there aren't any real mysteries to solve. The only element I would have liked to know isn't really answered after all. We don't get to know how the sea monster was created and how comes that it sometimes obeys the villains and sometimes it doesn't. 

As for the acting, the leading actors do an average job as some of them lack depth. Angela Yeung is simply a good-looking woman in love with a poet, that's it. The makers of the movie could have chosen any of the many good-looking Chinese actresses as Angela Young's character lacks uniqueness and feels like a hollow puppet to me. The jealous chief minister portrayed by Feng Shaofeng, the young prison doctor played by Lin Gengxin as well as Detective Dee himself who is now portrayed by Taiwanese-Canadian actor Mark Chao instead of Hongkong actor Andy Lau who was a little bit more charming in my opinion, all have interesting characteristics but remain somewhat superficial. Instead of focusing on special effects, the makers of the movie should have worked a little bit more on the character development.

This sequel is a colourful, effect-ridden, fast-paced movie that doesn't fail to entertain and which includes a few impressive investigative methods, beautiful settings and stunning fighting scenes. On the other side, the story is much simpler than in the first film and the actors are mostly exchangeable or stereotypical as in the case of the crazy doctor for example. Fans of modern Hongkong cinema and historical fiction where traditional elements are overrun by modern effects will like this movie. Everyone else is invited to watch this fun ride once but more sophisticated viewers will probably forget about this film pretty soon. I still think that the concept behind this franchise has some potential and hope that there will be a third movie and that's why I'm willing to rate this film seven points instead of only six.