Another week, another set of album reviews. I've been really lazy with getting these album review in on schedule, so I apologize to all my readers. Festival season will be coming up soon, so expect a lot of posts to be coming from me around those times. I hope you're ready!
Swedish death metal band Amon Amarth have become notorious in the metal community for their viking-themed melodic heavy metal. This new album, they've taken the themes even further by making their first concept album. The concept, according to vocalist Johan Bregg, is about the eponymous Jomsvikings, and the story of a young man seeking revenge. Full interview about the album's concept can be found here.
Their songs are known for being melodic yet aggressive, with the band's sound defined by twin guitarists Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Soderberg and vocalist Bregg's low, gutteral vocals. As with this album, most of their lyrics deal with the Vikings, hence the oft-cited nickname "Viking metal".
As I stated, with this new album, they've taken the theme of Vikings and made a story out of it. The story begins with "First Kill", which sets the brutal and grim stage for the rest of the story. "The Way of Vikings" describes just that: Defend your Viking brothers and show no mercy towards anyone. "Vengeance Is My Name" is where things start to get even more brutal, as the young man in the story begins to exact his revenge. There's even a track with German vocalist Doro Pesch. The album finally ends with the 7 minute-long epic "Back On Northern Shores".
The story of the Jomsvikings, when combined with Amon Amarth's melodic death metal sound, make for a compelling musical story. While the story does not have a happy ending, it is nonetheless a beautiful story told through Bregg's growled vocals and the melodic twin guitars.
Overall: 7/10
Favorite tracks: First Kill; On A Sea of Blood; Raise Your Horns; The Way of Vikings
Their songs are known for being melodic yet aggressive, with the band's sound defined by twin guitarists Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Soderberg and vocalist Bregg's low, gutteral vocals. As with this album, most of their lyrics deal with the Vikings, hence the oft-cited nickname "Viking metal".
As I stated, with this new album, they've taken the theme of Vikings and made a story out of it. The story begins with "First Kill", which sets the brutal and grim stage for the rest of the story. "The Way of Vikings" describes just that: Defend your Viking brothers and show no mercy towards anyone. "Vengeance Is My Name" is where things start to get even more brutal, as the young man in the story begins to exact his revenge. There's even a track with German vocalist Doro Pesch. The album finally ends with the 7 minute-long epic "Back On Northern Shores".
The story of the Jomsvikings, when combined with Amon Amarth's melodic death metal sound, make for a compelling musical story. While the story does not have a happy ending, it is nonetheless a beautiful story told through Bregg's growled vocals and the melodic twin guitars.
Overall: 7/10
Favorite tracks: First Kill; On A Sea of Blood; Raise Your Horns; The Way of Vikings
Purcell, Oklahoma's Parker Millsap (he may or may not be related to Ronnie...) is one of alt country's newest rising stars, having opened for the likes of Jason Isbell here in Nashville during one of Isbell's performances at the Ryman Auditorium last October.
This new album of his is one that I've been looking forward to listening to. I knew a little bit about what to expect if he had been opening for Jason Isbell. When I listened to it, it had the alt country twang of Isbell, combined with the southern rock stylings of Alabama Shakes. Millsap's vocals and lyricism shined through, with the young singer crooning about religious themes inspired by his upbringing in a Pentecostal household. Included is a stirring cover of traditional African blues tune "You Gotta Move".
All in all, a great alt country album from one of the genre's newest and best songwriters.
Overall: 7/10
Favorite songs: Pining; Morning Blues; The Very Last Day; You Gotta Move
This new album of his is one that I've been looking forward to listening to. I knew a little bit about what to expect if he had been opening for Jason Isbell. When I listened to it, it had the alt country twang of Isbell, combined with the southern rock stylings of Alabama Shakes. Millsap's vocals and lyricism shined through, with the young singer crooning about religious themes inspired by his upbringing in a Pentecostal household. Included is a stirring cover of traditional African blues tune "You Gotta Move".
All in all, a great alt country album from one of the genre's newest and best songwriters.
Overall: 7/10
Favorite songs: Pining; Morning Blues; The Very Last Day; You Gotta Move
Punk rock legend Bob Mould is back this year with a new album. I've never really listened to Husker Du (surprise!), but his influence on punk music cannot be overstated. In 2011, many musicians, including Dave Grohl and Spoon frontman Britt Daniel, among others, paid tribute to Bob Mould at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Now, in 2016, the influential punk frontman has released his 12th solo studio album. All I'd known about Bob Mould prior to this was that he was the frontman for an influential hardcore punk band from the 1980s as well as alt rock group Sugar in the 1990s. I didn't really know what to expect, even as this album has garnered critical acclaim from numerous sources such as Mojo and Rolling Stone.
Like I said, I didn't know what to expect, but after listening, I couldn't help but be a little baffled at the critical acclaim this album was getting. The songs themselves aren't bad, and they don't all sound the same, but they just bore the hell out of me. Not even a group of songs that are all relatively short was enough to keep me interested. It sounds a little bit too much like he tried to create a Foo Fighters album (or maybe, the Foo Fighters are trying to create a group of Bob Mould albums? Who knows?), although the song "Pray For Rain" does sound like a good Foo Fighters rocker. It's just too bad that the rest of the songs sound like boring songs by the former Mould collaborators.
Mould himself sounds great on the album, despite getting up there in age, but this album just doesn't contain any excitement for me.
Overall: 5/10
Favorite tracks: The End Of Things; Pray For Rain
Now, in 2016, the influential punk frontman has released his 12th solo studio album. All I'd known about Bob Mould prior to this was that he was the frontman for an influential hardcore punk band from the 1980s as well as alt rock group Sugar in the 1990s. I didn't really know what to expect, even as this album has garnered critical acclaim from numerous sources such as Mojo and Rolling Stone.
Like I said, I didn't know what to expect, but after listening, I couldn't help but be a little baffled at the critical acclaim this album was getting. The songs themselves aren't bad, and they don't all sound the same, but they just bore the hell out of me. Not even a group of songs that are all relatively short was enough to keep me interested. It sounds a little bit too much like he tried to create a Foo Fighters album (or maybe, the Foo Fighters are trying to create a group of Bob Mould albums? Who knows?), although the song "Pray For Rain" does sound like a good Foo Fighters rocker. It's just too bad that the rest of the songs sound like boring songs by the former Mould collaborators.
Mould himself sounds great on the album, despite getting up there in age, but this album just doesn't contain any excitement for me.
Overall: 5/10
Favorite tracks: The End Of Things; Pray For Rain
The Thermals are a three-piece pop punk group from Portland, Oregon, consisting of guitarist-singer-songwriter Hutch Harris, bassist Kathy Foster, and drummer Westin Glass. I first heard about the group from a critique on race and indie rock when the article referenced the Thermals' aforementioned bass player, who is a woman of color that can shred bass right up there with the best of 'em. Yes, the city of Portland, which is statistically the whitest city in the United States, has a bass player that is a black woman. But I digress.
I decided to give the band a listen after reading the article, and while I wasn't impressed, I enjoyed it enough to check out some of their other songs. Then, this album was released. From the sounds of their previous work, I was wondering if this album would be more of the same, and as it turns out, it kind of was. Nothing about it is new; rather, it's the same derivative pop punk that the band has been doing for a while now. It's good, but you can only make the same album so many times. Even a band like The Ramones were able to make their songs sound a little bit different from each other.
Overall: 6/10
Favorite songs: Hard to say, really...
I decided to give the band a listen after reading the article, and while I wasn't impressed, I enjoyed it enough to check out some of their other songs. Then, this album was released. From the sounds of their previous work, I was wondering if this album would be more of the same, and as it turns out, it kind of was. Nothing about it is new; rather, it's the same derivative pop punk that the band has been doing for a while now. It's good, but you can only make the same album so many times. Even a band like The Ramones were able to make their songs sound a little bit different from each other.
Overall: 6/10
Favorite songs: Hard to say, really...
Last year, Zayn Malik, one-fifth of British boy band One Direction, announced that he was leaving the band, much to the disappointment of many a "Directioner" on Twitter and elsewhere on the net. Even famed scientist Stephen Hawking had an opinion on this.
I will admit I've always had a bit of a soft spot for some of One Direction's songs. I would call them a guilty pleasure if I were actually guilty about liking any of the music that I did. I mean, sure, a song like "What Makes You Beautiful" has some dumb lyrics, but who is to say that some early Beatles songs didn't also have some? I guess I've always just appreciated how the boys never took themselves seriously.
So now we have this album, which is the first solo release by a member of One Direction. Early this year, the first single from the album was released, called "Pillowtalk". I personally enjoyed the single, especially its change in sound from Malik's previous band. Most of this album, however, seems to be more versions of "Pillowtalk". A lot of these songs are overtly sexual with hard-hitting electro-R&B instrumentals a la The Weeknd.
I've been really enjoying seeing 80s revivalism make its way into the mainstream, especially with last year's Carly Rae Jepsen review. But when your albums gets so sucked into 80s revivalism that it forgets to have some variety in it, things can get really boring really quickly. The one track on here with some notable variety is "Fool For You", which sounds more like Malik's old band. However, Malik's vocals on the track are extremely grating, which taints the whole song. Even worse, it follows "Wrong", a duet featuring R&B singer Kehlani, which is one of my favorite songs on the album.
It's definitely not a bad album by any stretch, but after how much I loved "Pillowtalk", I was thinking there would be a little more to it.
Overall: 5/10
Favorite tracks: Pillowtalk; Rear View; Wrong (feat. Kehlani); Truth
I will admit I've always had a bit of a soft spot for some of One Direction's songs. I would call them a guilty pleasure if I were actually guilty about liking any of the music that I did. I mean, sure, a song like "What Makes You Beautiful" has some dumb lyrics, but who is to say that some early Beatles songs didn't also have some? I guess I've always just appreciated how the boys never took themselves seriously.
So now we have this album, which is the first solo release by a member of One Direction. Early this year, the first single from the album was released, called "Pillowtalk". I personally enjoyed the single, especially its change in sound from Malik's previous band. Most of this album, however, seems to be more versions of "Pillowtalk". A lot of these songs are overtly sexual with hard-hitting electro-R&B instrumentals a la The Weeknd.
I've been really enjoying seeing 80s revivalism make its way into the mainstream, especially with last year's Carly Rae Jepsen review. But when your albums gets so sucked into 80s revivalism that it forgets to have some variety in it, things can get really boring really quickly. The one track on here with some notable variety is "Fool For You", which sounds more like Malik's old band. However, Malik's vocals on the track are extremely grating, which taints the whole song. Even worse, it follows "Wrong", a duet featuring R&B singer Kehlani, which is one of my favorite songs on the album.
It's definitely not a bad album by any stretch, but after how much I loved "Pillowtalk", I was thinking there would be a little more to it.
Overall: 5/10
Favorite tracks: Pillowtalk; Rear View; Wrong (feat. Kehlani); Truth