vanishing point - the fourth season (2007)

instant q&a: how many of you aren't fascinated with the picture to the left? a blindfold girl playing a violin on the shore under a dark cloudy sky: now that speaks of poetry - here's what i thought when i ran into it. and of course, that could as well be but a decoy, luring you into believing what's inside matches the beauty of what's outside, and then leaving you disappointed. fortunately, that's not the case.
little had i heard by this band before; but to those of you who are already familiar with them, i can say our aussies are keeping up what they've been doing so far. and to those of you who are new to them, i specify: what they've been up so far, is very good music. sure, but what does it sound like then?
imagine a heavier kind of melodic rock - let's just say melodic metal. you may as well take AOR as a starting point; add some heaviness, and an orchestral-driven sound, and you come quite close to guess what kind of music vanishing point make. so far, so banal - lest you're into AOR and the such, and if you are, this album is a must-have. what makes something more out of the fourth season though, is that it can appeal to the AOR non-lovers as well. the symphonic approach to it, the thickness of the sound (which at the same time is very melodic), even the vague lyrics make it a dense, compact, prime quality work. but before i turn this from a simple appreciation into a quest for the most alluring definition (yeah, even i got better things to do), i'll try to give you a quick stare at what's to be found on the album.
"surrender" is the first hit. no wonder it was also made into a videoclip. its start does a nice testimony to the spirit of the whole album. refrains and verses are equally catchy; and that also applies to the rest of the album, most evident on the following "hope among the heartless" and on a consistent bunch of other songs too. to name some of the songs' unique features, i might mention the epicity of "i within i" (introduced by an awesome short instrumental), as well as the prog-flavoured gait of "ashen sky", or the "cloudy" thoughtfulness of the final "day of difference", closing the album in a slowly, peaceful fade-out which is just the most fitting of endings.
the fourth season's melodies will lure you in a convincing way; once you're caught, the power of the sound which has come to surround you will not easily let you escape. and you will probably not even want to.
i have honestly not heard so many, but this is the first AOR (or quasi-AOR) record to sort of win my cold, icy, heartless soul of a progster. that alone should mean something.

thus spake the cennsor: 8/10

alestorm - captain morgan's revenge (2008)

what would you expect from a band who label their own music as "true scottish pirate metal"? folkish, up-tempo rides across the fourth (fourths) seas? correct guess. any time i think of pirates, a word comes to my mind (don't ask why): swashbuckling. and that's what these guys are - and so is their first release under this monicker. in fact, some might be interested in having a listen to what these buckaneers did before signing for the mighty nuclear blast - if that's the case, jot down the name "battleheart", which (just as the current one by the way), already spoke for itself.
the merely musical background is expectedly some kind of speedy, up-tempo power metal - as the "true" in their own definition may suggest. the keyboards and accordions add that tasty folky flavour which is needed to set up some kind of piraty mood. and unlike too many a record, here the keyboards really do fit, providing a nice background sound which is neither invadent nor foreshadowed by the other, more noise-making instruments.
by the way, don't let tags misguide you: no doubt alestorm have something in common with other folk, "non-pirate" metal acts - still they bring out something fresh and personal. to name but one thing: more solos than you'd expect to find on a folk metal album (along with the thrashy flavour to "death by the mast"). to name just another: the pirates of the caribbean theme "quotation" creeping out one of the songs. the melodies flow rather naturally, and before you realise, the album's over - in a way, even too soon.
oh, and yes, there IS a beer song too. when expected things are good. what you might not expect, is to find alestorm's own version of "flower of scotland" as a coda to this adventurous journey. what? oh right, they did warn us, they're scots. and proud to be.

thus spake the cennsor: 8/10

the beginning, at last

what better than a southern metal guitarist's quote to introduce this all? - anything, you say? well, true.

by the way, not-really-long story short: this blog is intended to be a place where i review some of my albums - those i like the most, those i can't stand, anyway those i just feel like writing something about. so, don't expect to find anything of the so-called "objective" kind here. i'd rather leave the claim for objectivity to those who write reviews for a living. and to the experts, of course.

you know, those bragging about their mastery of whatever subject all the time.

i do not understand the faintest thing about music; i am by no means entitled to write about it, atleast no more than your average passionate listener. so don't either expect to find anything accurate here, atleast not music-wise. the only thing i can be accurate about are my own tastes. and i'm not even sure i WANT to be accurate, then.

so now with THE question: why to write, and why to read this? as to the first, i may as well just say i simply like to do it, no matter whether someone reads me or not. and that would not be true. so as a honest answer, i'm doing it for those who are curious enough about music, to bother reading a "review" from time to time. getting music without the slighest criterion of choice could sure be fun, but sometimes you might just want to, say, follow some kind of path in doing it.

so that's what this blog is meant for. to provide some sort of guidelines to those who are in search for something new to listen to, and don't want to end up badly disappointed for having wasted money purchasing (or, time downloading - well, morals ain't the cennsor's primary concern) music they eventually don't like.

so, what else? it should be clear enough by now that this blog is only meant to contain my own opinions. what i'm going to write here, is nothing but what I think about music. i'm saying this only to prevent some kind of naive disappointment. made that clear, comments are there for a reason. i'd obviously appreciate some feedback. and i mean, that of the intelligent kind. i know it's harder, folks, but it happens to be more useful.

thank you, and enjoy the approaching rambling.