Final Conflict - Return of the Artisan

The progrock year started with this surprise to me. While getting the new Mystery (live later this year and two previous classics) and Lifesigns (great CD) I got this one more or less as an extra to myself. Hardly could I guess that after a few spins this turned out to become my hard to top Neo Prog release for 2013.

Final Conflict a band from over twenty years old, who I discovered with their collection album Simple from 2006. This was a good sounding album which got me interested and picking up two early nineties releases as well. Every now and then I play them like similar bands Credo, Grey Lady Down, Arena, Also Eden or DeeExpus. Solid Neo prog bands with great guitars.

The surprise came by the fact that this seems to be their best album clearly. After short opener the Calling we get into The Mechanic, which grows through several mechanical moods with distorted voices, into a beautiful instrumental break sounding organic with clear vocals in British accent, what was that? Probably one of the better UK prog rock songs for the last years. Passing yet another short instrumental (the not so necessary the Spark) the party goes on with Hopes and Dreams, high level maintained and the bar definitely set higher than heard before from them.  Around About next showing that Ballads, motions, power, all comes by on this varied CD with not one bad or lesser song following. Where were they hiding the past 6 years to come up with this masterwork?

Never mind the questions, this is just a great start for the year, which to me prog rock needed after some less interesting months. With Lifesigns being great and Cosmograf plus Big Big Train coming up we might be in for a great year (Alpha Flood I'm looking forward to most, but that might turn out more progmetal)

Final point of interest can be found in the drummer Henry Rogers who turns into drummers' answer to John Mitchell appearing on at least three different bands within a year (and I did see him with an instrumental trio at Mattfest which thereafter turned under the radar to me). We can only hope that his many bands do not stop Final Conflict from crossing the Noordzee later this year.

Corsair - Corsair

Retro bands sounding modern, yet obviously inspired by the seventies. We have seen several of them over the past years making it even to co-headliner status at summer festivals all over Europe (Wolfmother, Rival Sons, The Answer). references that are most mentioned  for these bands are Free, Cream and the obvious Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple.

In comes Corsair also digging in the seventies, with this short CD, with one major difference being inspiration number one is Thin Lizzy. This being seventies Thin Lizzy, not the Thunder and Lightning or Cold Sweat one. Listening to the twin guitars and especially the voice of bass player Jordan Brunk and you can almost feel the Black Rose of the Emerald. Unfortunately the vocals are shared between three members and the other six songs are not as spot on back in time.

This does not mean that there are only two good songs on this CD. Due to the voice of Paul Sebring his three songs have some NWOBHM feeling over them and frequent readers of this blog do understand that I do not have the least of a problem with that. Only remark could be that some uptempo would be welcome, since in general we hear midtempo work. Since the main ingredient is twin guitar sounds this is still a good listen. Second guitarist who also sings is Marie Landragin. The fact that she is a woman does not impact the twin guitars, but does make the final song a bit different from the rest (This Mortal Coil vocals over a Cave In/Anekdoten song)

Corsair obviously like their mix of vocals and instrumentals, but to me Jordan Brunk can be promoted to the only vocalist. Yet another band that to me might be just as big as the above mentioned examples. Let's see if luck strikes them and someone influential picks them up and puts them on the right festivals. Very nice CD indeed.

Angel Witch Baroeg Rotterdam 17 February 2013

On a Sunday afternoon driving to de Baroeg in Rotterdam means metal. De Baroeg is a dark place in the south of Rotterdam which oozes metal. Perfect sceneray for a straight forward Heavy metal show. Openers were Enforcer from Sweden, who might have got the largets response of the day, also helped by a recent release which got good reviews. I enjoyed their show with Heavy Metal as it is being played in its purest form. Closer of the afternoon/evening was also from Sweden Grand Magus. A doomy power trio which played good songs, best compared with a slightly less impressive version of The Quil (thanks Hans)

My main reason was the fact that  thirty something years after its release I finally could see a live performance of one of NWOBHM's most Classic albums being performed live. After my rediscovery of the NWOBHM I bought their 2012 release As Above, So Below. This album also showed the renewed relevance of Angel Witch and came back twice in the set. Of course the core of the set was focussed around the debut album and from Atlantis through Confused, Burn the White Witch, Angel of Death we ended with the Classic title song Angel Witch. This song is amongst the most representative ones for a whole genre, so obviously the roof came down and the Baroeg went banging, jumping and screaming. One to scratch of the list, songs you should see live even if only once.

My expectations were high for this show and they were easily met. The playing was great and the sound met with the level of the show. Main question after the show to me was, where did things go wrong?  The debut album matches Iron Maiden's Killers or Saxon's Wheels of Steel in my view.
Let's put it down to unlucky, but after the live show the album only lives more and shows how relevant classics like these still are. Thanks to the revival, I'm hoping to see more shows like this soon.

Tiago - The Final Countdown

Last December Tiago was supposed to play at the drumdag from the Scheveningse Muziekschuur. Unfortunately due to a dislocated elbow he had to cancel last minute. Today we did need to film an audition for school and as proud dad I wanted to share the result.

It's the Final Countdown! 

Playgrounded - Athens

One of the many good things about Progpower is that you meet nice people at the festival. Since we all share variations on the same musical theme, this can result in tips over the email on new founds you would normally have missed. In this respect I received a tip from Andrew on Playgrounded and their debut CD Athens, which he thought I might like quite a bit. An right he was. (Read his much more informative review on Ave Noctum)

Playgrounded are from the beautiful city of Chania on Crete and play an emotional sort of progressive metal/rock. On my pre-purchase internet search I ran into names of Tool, Mastodon and Anathema. I can see where this is coming from although Playgrounded are the lighter part of the first two references. A band that came to mind with me with the first listens was A Liquid Landscape, but then a heavier version of them. These songs also are build up around atmospheres in general slowly moving forward, although Seessaw Snap enlightens us with some heavy outbursts.

The CD lasts only 33 minutes with 5 songs on them, but this introduction makes me eager to hear more of this band. Great musicians, good songs and if promoted well enough I can't see why they should not get worldwide exposure through the now 3 Progpower festivals again. Apart from that the fact that they come from Chania, which gave me the chance to add a holiday picture from 2 years ago.

DMJGH 23: Trespass - The Works

Still there in the early eighties. With the reduced stream of interesting new CD's I have been surfing, finding and buying lately quite a bit of metal history.  Guided by the book Suzie smiled the NWOBHM and internet sites for viewing or listening I did fill up some gaps in my ncollection. Most interesting is the number of songs I did recognize or could actually sing along, without knowing I knew that band and song. Biggest surpise was learning that the old DPRP Radio/Stroud FM tune came from Demon's The Plague.

Next to the recently described Shiva album (which I definitely did not know 30 years ago) I enjoyed a lot re-listening albums of Praying Mantis, Angel Witch and my favorite new old NWOBHM album Trespass - The Works. The opening song is their Classic "One of these Days". Apart from their other single "Bright Lights" the song that came back to memory immediately. The Works is a collection of 16 songs and I must say all are very good. Some factors are a constant: Songs are all about the song, Lyrics are short and often repeated and guitar solo's are plenty. The range goes from mostly mid-tempo NWOBHM to some faster songs (Stormchild) and ballads( Point of no Return). I actually was after their anthology which is a double CD with all recordings, but could not find that one. After listening to The Works almost constantly over the past weeks I am now searching for The Works II, which should complete my Trespass collection.. I always considered Stampede my favorite NWOBHM -era band, but Trespass are as good.

Mentioning the internet, it is surprising how little there can be found on this band. Hardly any reviews, no own website, and some sky high priced singles on E-bay. This makes you think that they no longer exist, until the line-up of Headbangers Open Air suddenly includes them. When scrolling the web I do read there is a NWOBHM revival going on. This is very welcome indeed, with albums like these showing why metal and hardrock boomed 1979-1983.

Last tip on NWOBHM live (although unfortunately without Trespass): The new 3-day Belgian R-Mine Metal Fest, shall have on the last day a NWOBHM program with Hell, Tygers of Pan Tang, Savage, Demon and Cloven Hoof. Still waiting for headliners on the more Power metal day, but this seems to become a history leason I would not like to miss.

Heretic - A Time Of Crisis

American Heavy Metal. It came some years after the NWOBHM and brought us some great music as well. One of the bands I got on LP at the time was Heretic. Later known when vocalist Mike Howe moved to Metal Church (And closed the Dynamo Open Air 91 festival with an extremely enjoyable show) But Heretic's Breaking Point also was a great album, so when I ran into yet another comeback and saw they released a new album in 2012 an order was placed swift.

It is interesting to see how several music forms stand the test of time so well. Early 70's prog rock, early 80's NWOBHM might sound dated in a way, but at the same time still very good and the quality remain. American Metal was the more Power/Speed driven direction when already faster subgenres were developing and Thrash Metal was even bigger at the time.

This album in general moves on heavy mid tempo speed and is full of guitar solo's as we love and which were not mandatory within some later arriving subgenres. The album touches political views, bangs along nice and holds some traditional hymns like Raise Your Fist. Main difference with their debut album is that vocalist Mike Howe is no longer around and Julian Mendez takes the honors. Unfortunately I have to conclude that Mike Howe in his eighties form would have lifted this album up a notch. JM is not necessarily bad, but he lacks somewhat on the power front. I always liked the high pitched screams which many US metal bands had plenty off, they are absent here. The Scream during their band anthem Heretic is there, but still not deafening enough. By the way this remains probably their best song, fast and furious.

Now I am looking for nostalgic metal festivals on a pleasant scale I do know this band along many great 80's bands shall be at the Headbangers Open Air festival this July. I feel I need to go and this CD only got me more interested since I don't want to turn my back, on the Heretic!