Armored Saint - Compass - Fates Warning - Gargoyl - Prehistoric Animals - The Reticent - Solitary

With the end of the year nearing herewith some more CD's I believe you might like to hear. As I will soon have to start the impossible task of ranking my favorite albums of 2020 I now kept it simple and let mr alphabet guide us.

Armored Saint - Punching the Sky
It is the year 2020 and can Armored Saint still surprise me? The answer is a firm No and Yes. No they shall not change their style suddenly from the traditional heavy metal that made them big. So be ready for the voice of John Bush, a heavy drum and bass basis and the guitar solos flying all over the place. Yes they can surprise me by the simple fact that they did it again. Not many bands can state that their last albums are as strong as their early work from the eighties. Armored Saint can and only nostalgia might make the oldies favorites to some. So the outcome is simple one of the best albums of the year which is an obligatory purchase for anyone into Heavy Metal.

Compass - Our Time on Earth

Compass showed that it pays of to keep next to Aardschok also a subscription to iO Pages. It is all about discovering bands and latter magazine had a raving review first and an issue later an interview with Compass. Both made me check out the album on internet (and buy it straight after doing so) This band has Steve Newman from the band Newman writing the music. This results in a wonderful mix of melodic hard rock and progmetal light. At times I remembered the band Stride when listening to Our Time on Earth. Then I checked if Aardschok ever reviewed the album and saw they gave it a 50/100 score with lines like not one original note etc. Well for me those unoriginal notes did wonders

Fates Warning - Long Day Good Night

When I recently ranked all Fates Warning albums I stated I can not compare this album yet with the rest of their discography. Not much changed since then. It is Fates Warning, so obviously I love the album. Further it is much longer than any other release, which gives them the time to explore some different routes along the way. This variation definitely works fine. What stands out with such variety is that Ray Alder just gave us one of his best performances ever. Favorite track probably the epic, as The Longest Shadow of the Day starts simply amazing building to an instrumental outburst halfway before lyrics kick in. Not sure how it compares to other FW albums, pretty sure how it does compare with other bands of mere musicians.Geniusses.

Gargoyl - Gargoyl

The reason I checked out this band is that it holds David Davidson on guitars. He is better known from his work with Revocation and now would release an album wit Gargoyl, where no grunts appear. When I saw the clip of Plastic Nothing I ordered the album. Later while reading reviews I often saw comparisons with Alice In Chains. Not a grunge man myself I believe the voice and darkness do have some similarities. After playing the album several times I still can not fully describe what I think of it. Definitely different I might give it another ten attempts

Prehistoric Animals - The Magical Mystery Machine

Prehistoric Animlas were last year to many including me, one of the best surprises of PPE. A very nice performance and good songs. One year later they give us a follow up album and show they got even slightly better. What I like about them is that while I prefer in general my music dark and moody, they play optimistic music. With an album title that reminds us of the Beatles, no surprise maybe. Again we get seven very pleasant earwurms and I would love to see an uplifting show again by them one day.

The Reticent - The Oubliette

The Reticent is an almost one man band project by Chris Hatcock. Since 2008 he releases every four years an album. I got into this band after 2016's beautiful sad concept album On the Eve of a Goodbye. Four years later he does it again. Releasing a sad concept album that goes musically all over the place and is filled with emotions. This time Alzheimer is the subject and you can feel he has been through this process from nearby to come up with such intense songs. Overall I would call it a progmetal concept album, but be open minded towards grunts, blasts, spoken word and very calm passages. Another masterpiece makes you happy that he does have a touring band around him so who knows one day. 

Solitary - The Truth Behind the Lies

I said it before and say it again the big four in thrash is only history based. If you look at the current century there are so many thrash metal bands that release albums the big four can only dream of nowadays. Further unlike Aardschok tries to tell us often good thrash metal does not have to come out of the USA or Germany only, it is a global movement. UK band Solitary herewith release their fourth album and first thing standing out is the sound blasting out of your speakers. Solitary promised us before to thrash forever, but rarely did they do so ferociously. Opener I Will Not Tolerate sets the pace and basically we get eight highlights in a row. My personal favorite so far Homage to the Broken, where we do get half a second relief before When We're Broken is spit at us in full force again. A great album on a new lable, which should bring them back to Hertog Jan country again in years to come. 

Wayfarer - Heathen - The Pineapple Thief

 While I am waiting for quite some time now for a wave of new CD's to be delivered herewith some tips from the past months. With my alternating months between Holland and Portugal I try to order so that I can hear new albums  while in The Hague. As I than need to play them a few times I lack behind release dates, but just focus on some albums I think deserve soem extra attention. These three made it often to my CD player even if Fish and Fates Warning almost refused to get out. Normally I start calm and review the loudest band last. This time it is the other way around as I start with the surprise of last weeks by a band new to me.

Wayfarer - A Romance with Violence

It was at first a review on Metal-Experience that made me check out this album. Listening to the two available songs on bandcamp made me decide to jump in the adventure that is called Wayfarer and I ordered the full album. Their style was described as Black Metal and also the term Spaghetti Western passed by. Now it must have been around eleven year old me who bought the soundtrack of Once Upon a Time in the West as one of my first LP's. I was at the time (and still) very impressed by the work of Ennio Morricone and mixing Spaghetti Western with Black Metal sounded great on paper. Turns out that in reality it sounds even better. Wayfarer present us in 45 minutes 7 songs. This includes two instrumentals and one ballad like song. Three mainly Black metal sung epics and a finale where all comes together in potential highlight Vaudeville (although Masquerade of the Gunslinger is also a candidate for that) How great it is to discover a new band and get all excited over their release. Also finding you have a past to discover still. I am blown away by this album and after playing the CD a few times even decided to order the longsleeve as well in support. This also because the artwork in the booklet is very nice and fits the western theme. Year end lists material with a twist of being different. Check them out.

Heathen - Empire of the Blind

Late last year or begin 2020 a new Heathen album was announced, plus a European tour which would hit Baroeg. Two reasons to make me happy as their last album The Evolution of Chaos is already ten years old and I never saw them playing live. Well the shows were postponed, but the album meets my high expectations. Heathen is among those thrash metal bands who started in the eighties and now manage to release thrash metal albums the big four can only dream of (Death Angel, Flotsam & Jetsam and Exodus do the same) This album holds an instrumental intro and outro. While those are nice and calm, the instrumental A Fine Red Mist is a true shredfest and highlight. Further there is a ballad in Shrine of Apathy, which is both not cheesy and welcome being placed inbetween neck braking bangers In Black and Devour. The full album is a high and written by guitarist Kragen Lum alone. If anything on the strong songs stands out it must be the overdose of great guitar solo's by Kragen and Lee Altus. Finally the album booklet closes with a picture of Jim DeMaria proudly wearing his Toxik Tee. A strong candidate for best thrash metal album of the year.

The Pineapple Thief - Versions of the Truth

Now it is up to The Pineapple Thief to follow these two monsters up. Well I can be short they cannot. That does not matter as I would never play their album after the above mentoned two. TPT makes progressive rock music which is not all that progressive. I had in the past an album by Vulgar Unicorn and picked up TPT debut Abducting the Unicorn in 2000 which was a sort of development from there. in 2010 I bought their album Someone Here is Missing and now ten years later again I listened to Versions of the Truth on Progstreaming and decided to buy the album. So I follow a pattern here, which does not follow their 13 album career at all. TPT were often compared with that other TPT headed by Steven Wilson. When listening to Versions of the Truth  it was this what attracted me again. Clips of the new Steven Wilson solo make clear that my open-mindness shall be tested again with his next album so playing safe and have some calm TPT for my Sunday mornings made me buy the album. So don't expect anything heavy or wild here, but if you don't want to wake up yet and put some music on this album works wonders.

Fish - Weltschmerz

 If ever anyone decided to go out with a bang, I doubt they managed to do it as overwhelming as Fish just did. Fish is for 38 years now my favorite story-teller in music. This album was announced years ago together with the fact that it would be his last. Several personal issues, family matters followed by Covid-19 made this release being pushed forwards, but now we have it. One of the delays also got caused by a hospitalized cover artist Mark Wilkinson. In the guiding documentary Fish explains that there was no way he would move to another cover-artist for his last album and boy can we be pleased with that decision as I can recommend the special edition with artwork, that won't be met in years to come.  So in order to go out in style this is a double album with the total lenght of two eighties LP's in 84:30. Ten songs only so we can look forward to the inclusion of some epics. Over the years we could hear and see parts of the album with especially the EP a Parlour of Angels and the three songs of that album being played during his 2018 tour.  But as it is a last album let me exceptionally do a song by song review.

The album opens with the sounds of a MRI scan, which Fish underwent and decided to use on the album. The Grace of God is a personal story about his hospital days and is a strong start 8 minutes classic Fish with an emotional bridge on the girl with the Docs. Immediately we know we are in for an emotional album, where no feelings are spared. And there but for the grace of God go I. Next song Man with a Stick, did not blow me away when first hearing it live in Edinburgh September 2018. Reading along with the lyrics, watching the clip and suddenly this song came alive, talking about many sticks in live. Walking on eggshells discusses problematic relations one of his favorite topics. The song is upped with heavy orchestration and female choirs on the background leading to a louder end before a final calm line closes off. This Party's Over at first sounds like the party song on the album, with some celtic influences plus whistles and saxophone. But then the lyrics are about saying goodbye to alcohol and the state of the word, so where's the party here?. This short uptempo song breaks the album nicely and opens the path for the first epic of over 15 minutes Rose of Damascus. This song follows a girl from early days going out in Syria until the decision to move abroad ending with her heading for the sea on a boat. Two strong spoken word parts make this such a powerful song with a message in a fashion that only Fish really is able to do in music (for me that is).  If emotions were not on a high already the second CD opens with Garden of Remembrance. This already is the best song ever written  on Alzheimer and lasting love. The Blu Ray contains a documentary on the making of the videoclip and this only adds to the emotion of that song. As the full album is dark and emotional throughout. The next C Song is about being diagnosed  with Cancer stating I won't let you bring me down. The instrumental part is called the Trondheim Waltz as during his 2018 Trondheim show this song under development was played and Fish asked everyone to dance with the person next to them. Getting an uplifting spirit in a hall while singing about such a topic is only for few an achievable option. Little Man What now is another 11 minutes of self reflection, packed in a ballad like orchestral song. Next song Waverley Steps is my absolute favorite of the album. A story on a London City or Amsterdam Zuidas work hard, party harder young man, who gets married, in marital fights, divorced and ending with his dog on Waverley Steps at Edinburgh station. I first heard this song when in Edinburgh and the next day I visited the steps to take a picture of Josie there. Not knowing the lyrics yet, I am now pleased that I can place the description of this song. The title track Weltschmerz closes the album in style where Fish sings about the sorry state of the world ending in a biting The rapture is near. 

So reading back I noticed I did not write about the music, but more on the stories told. Well that is exactly what I love in Fish. I think it is safe to say that if you ever liked any work by Fish solo or with Marillion, you can safely buy this album. I do recommend the special edition as it offers so much extra's including the story on making four promo video's in lockdown days. A final word of thanks must go to Mark & Julie Wilkinson as they outdid themselves with some beautifull artwork. For me that all culminates on page 100 where the cover of Market Square Heroes got an upgrade to the grey-bearded warrior with a mask used against the plague. So much beauty released made this whole package an adventure to me. Vigil Fish'first solo album was considered a classic and still stands strong 30 years later. I am sure that this album 30 years from today shall still stand proud as well. Finally on the docu Fish made an uplifting comment on his touring. He plans still two tours. First one where Vigil meets with Weltschmerz. Than thereafter a farewell show where he plans to play two different sets on two nights in several of his favorite venues over the years. That should include Tivoli and Paradiso so For the grace of God shall I be there four nights. And if you see me cry it shall be of sheer joy for his music and you can buy me a beer for comfort. Thank you Fish.