As you might have notice this blog plays around the progressive word, The main objective is to help on the promotion of metal and trying to change the perspective metal=noise.
However, Expect the unexpected. Mainly focussed on progressive metal or rock, but easily going to catch some good stuff to bands with only some progressive elements. And sometimes also going totally out of the progressive genre and of metal. Help you discovering what has been done of value around the world in my opinion.
Today I make the last post of 2015, this is my Christmas Present to anyone who stumble upon my blog, hope on the last two months I might be able to show some cool stuff, some that you might already knew, and some new stuff
I don't want to leave this year without a song, so I choose a Swedish band, Darkwater to maximize the progressive(ly) style of this blog. this 2007's album Calling the Earth to Witness is worth hearing, specially this one, Again. Here it is, enjoy.
Stay around in 2016, the next bands appearing here, don't know by now the exact order, are
Les Discrets, Leprous and Antimatter(the band I'm hearing in repeat by now), I still don't know which songs I will post so in 2016, wait for it.
Today I'm only passing by to post my latest addiction
I'm hearing this ones in repeat by now, and so decided to share it with you
Water's on Fire from The Ocean at the End album from 2014
I will also share with you, Black Roses from the same album
Here the lyrics of Water's on Fire, for you to follow
Here we stand hand in hand
See those stars those shifting sands
If I stay it falls apart
It's sad but true
I'll break your heart
I know that river still flows
On and on
But that hatred has tainted my soul
So the story goes
Close but far back again
Lovers lost sweet lament
If I stay it falls apart
It's sad but true
I'll break your heart
You shouldn't stay here with me
For all you know
What was, what is will now be
For all the world to see
I feel no shame, I was to blame
(The) Water's on fire
I feel no shame, I will not change
(The) Water's on fire
Here we are one last chance
Can we share this final dance
If I stay it falls apart
It's sad but true
I'll break your heart
You shouldn't stay here with me
For all you know
What was, what is will now be
For all the world to see
I feel no shame, I was to blame
Water's on fire
I feel no shame, I will not change
(The) Water's on fire
You thought the truth was only you
My love or desire
I feel no shame, I will not change
(The) Water's on fire
Gimme the fire
Ahh ohh
Water's on fire
Ahh ohh
Water's on fire
Water's on fire
One more post predicted before 2015 ends, stay tuned
Today I bring you another middle eastern sound band, not properly from middle east but from Northern Africa. Myrath from Tunisia. Their sound is easily noticed as progressive. Some songs I think brings us the perspective of the Arab Spring. lyrics like:
War has come, bringing death,
lust and pain soiling our home.
Mourns and cries kindle hate,
taint our hearts, corrupt our souls.
Corroborate What I just said.
The 2007 album has more the progressive sound than the third one, I don't appreciate the second one that much, but if you want to check out, be free to do it. From this album Hope, the track which title the album Hope
From the third Album, "Tales of the Sands" I bring you three different songs.
First Under Siege the one from which I took the lyrics before. Here with the presence of Clémentine Delauney, some might know her from Serenity or Visions of Atlantis, or some other projects she is today. As I said for me being this song from 2011 is heavily connected with the Arab Spring
The Second one Braving the Seas, is about a Pirate, obvious as we hear the lyrics in it, not much to add, except the quality of the song
The third and last one is Merciless Times, the official video, some important message, how sometimes our life seems to keep going without us.
I share Myrath because in February they will be the first part of Symphony X concert here in Lisbon and I thought it would be good to share them with you.
With so much posts from Orphaned Land, I decide to not post anything last Wednesday and will not post anything next Wednesday, because today I will post 6 songs, so It takes time to hear all of them properly.
The later album of Orphaned Land is "All is One" from 2013. take a look at the 3 religious symbols put together to bring up the title, all is one.
The track with the name of the album is one of the most dense songs from Orphaned Land, It's one of those that may not enter in the ear at first, but sooner or later it will. With a big message on the lyrics and video also, enjoy All is One.
Next I show you me personal best, The Simple Man both Studio and Live at São Jorge ones. This song amazes me not only because of the lyrics, denying almost their role on the pacifism they brought, but also the sound which fits at certain time he Says "I dance while raising high both hands". And in concert who knows the lyrics do exactly that, we put our hands in the air. So good, enjoy it.
here the live version
The Third song told us the Biblical Story about the conflict Judaism vs Muslims, they adapt the song, but you can feet the pain in the song. And the chords are simply an amazing add on. Brother is the song I bring you now.
The fourth song tolds us how so many people are brought to this endless war, and how even two strangers which have different beliefs can put the weapons down and just be brothers. This song shows us the dark side of it, two friends who always played with one another, face themselves in war, and the only winner here is Death itself. The Song Let the Truce be Known some think the song is let the truth be known , but no, it talks about the truce the once two brothers made around a song before the last night of their lives.
About the fifth song... if you were wondering where are the non English songs in this album? well I bring you two, the first is then Shama'im. I would say this song fits a bit in the middle eastern style, with choirs, and the arabic guitar well present, enjoy.
The sixth song and second non English is Ya Benaye, this song is different from the last one, not so much mystic as that one, a bit more heavy, more intense also almost as something is happen I could say I understand what he is saying but I would be lying to you. Enjoy.
The 3rd part is from their 2010 album. The Never Ending Way of ORWarriOR
This album also as totally other type of sound in it, from Rich lyrics, to amazing sound and songs which Live gain another life
Starting with my second Favourite Song from Orphaned Land of all time, Sapari, this song is so storng even live that almost nobody wastes time recording, just to be able to apreciate it, this song has the great presence of Shlomit Levi, brilliant female vocals
This part of the lyrics are for me some of the richest ones I ever seen
It soared from the ark the dove within me It sings forever, it flies free I call to thee my torch in darkness, thou art born Ornaments of gold shine so bright You are the way, you are the light I dwell in this my shelter and thy birth do I foresee
The second one I will share is Olat Ha'tamid, another non English song, one of those to simply relax and enjoy, here special note to the rhythmic change, how almost a tribal sound becomes so festive.
At last bot not least, In Thy Neverending way, the studio version is strong but the live version is amazing, so Will share both with you. They ask the audience to sing with them on this one and how amazing it becomes. While the studio version is more of a typical song, live is becomes solemn.
The second part of this Orphaned land big post is about Mabool
I would Say that Mabool is the album where most of fans stumble upon when hearing Oprhaned Land, it has a multitude of sounds and rythms, you can basically pick a song based on your State of Mind. If you want a calm song you have it, if you want a stronger one? yeah also there. A non english song? also present.
So I will stop enumerating adjectives and I will start sharing with you some of the songs from this album
I will start with "Ocean Land", the song which brought me to Orphaned land at first, probably one of the heaviest songs from them
Next, A'salk or Ar'salk, I already saw the song written with the two forms, here we have the female arabe vocalisations which allow our souls to be amazed by such intensity, with the arabic guitar, all becomes just perfect, once again the desert sounds are present. Enjoy
The next one I choose was, "Building the ark". If in the last one we had female vocalisations, now we have male vocalisations, all completes with all A'salk has, another song to let your soul be touched with.
Finally I will bring you one of my personal favourites, Norra el Norra, this one live is simply superb, but the studio version just can't be left behind. As the band recalled it's a party song, but an middle eastern style party. Enjoy
Here I leave you A'salk Live at São Jorge Cinema here in Lisbon
Greetings. Today I bring you a band which is worth hearing any day, any month, any year.
I bring you Orphaned Land.
Orphaned Land are from Israel, but are in opposite way when compared to Amaseffer, cause Amaseffer show us biblical lyrics, the pursuit of Hebrews and their history. Orphaned Land Appeal's to Peace in in Middle East, criticize how the Palestine-Israel war is going. And Appeal to our senses that as the last album says, All is One
For the first part I will share songs from their first two albums, cause this two has a kind of sound that is not so easy to hear after these.
Their First Two Albums were
Sahara 1994
El Norra Alila 1996
The songs from this 2 albums are more kind of profetic, a different tone to intertwine our thoughts about what's was, is and will ever happen in Middle East
From Sahara I leave you, "The Beloved's Cry" more of a romantic one, mixed with some religiosity content, this song is magic, mixing the sounds of the desert with the sounds of middle east culture. I would say something of what lacks sometimes in Western Cultural
From El Norra Alila I leave you, "The Evil urge", the version live is something amazing but I will leave that to a later moment, the studio version is still pretty interesting
Check also the Live version of this song which I personally prefer
2nd part will arrive Wednesday, this Orphaned Land will have 4 parts, I don't want to mix the next albums in a single post cause some of the mystical power of them is lost.
After 2008's album Immortal, Matt Barlow as expected quitted, after a hiatus, Urban Breed from Bloodbound and Tad Morose was announced as the new vocalist. But the hesitation continued.
Soon It was announced their rhythmic guitarist quitted the band, Michael Kammeyer. Soon we understood Pyramaze was closer to end than to return with a new album
Terje Haroy
Jacob Hansen
That was when Jacob Hansen(producer of a lot of bands, and ex-Anubis Gate) was announced to replace Michael on Guitars and in 2014
Terje Haroy was anounced has the new vocalist
In 2015 a new album was announced Disciples Of the Sun, here the progressive metal style is evident, some rhythm and pace changes, all fits on this style now
Their first Song self-entitled from the album, Disciples of The sun
But my favourite ones are Battle of Paridas
And Back for More
I can't say yet much about this album, but it's not as strong as the other two, but is really enjoyable.
Immortal has almost nothing in common with The Legend of the Bone carver, maybe the musicians who remain and the fantasy/mythological themes in songs
The first Fact that changes, and what changed was a lot is Lance King decided to part ways with Pyramaze, and so the vocalist was replaced... than you my ask, who took the vocals part on Immortal album from 2008? well it was:
Matt Barlow(Ex-Iced Earth)
Matt Barlow is famous for the fact of being Iced Earth vocalist for a long time. his voice has nothing from power metal basically, the progressive metal starts to make a stand here, the voice fits perfectly the new way the band sounds. Here he entered as guest, so we knew already he was going to leave the band afterwards.
In this album we have songs which are a scream of revival like year of the phoenix
We have a song about Mara, and how she controls our nightmares, Touched By The Mara
Then we have a powerful balad, once again Jonah Weingarten does his thing here, for me this is one of the most beautiful songs in metal, even more for the emotion all band transmits here
And also a Song based on mythology, Caramon's poem
Greetings after the next part of Pyramaze post, I will share with you the solo album of Lance King, and also share with you the solo album of David Readman, ex-vocalist of Adagio
Starting with Lance King, here I leave you Awakening
From David Readman I leave you, Don't Let it Slip Away
Hello there. Today I will talk about one of my favourite bands that suffered a lot of metamorfosis along their way
First Saying that I know there is another album called Melancholy Beast, which is Pyramaze 1st album, but as I don't hear it that much, I'm starting with their second album but feel free to listen their first album.
In this album "The Legend of The Bone Carver", there are some progressive metal elements, but not too many. I could call it more near a Power Progressive band maybe, as you may want to call
In this album we hear the amazing power metal voice of Lance King, and for me the biggest point in this band is the keyboarder, Jonah Weingarten
Jonah Weingarten
Lance King
This whole album is a concept album, it talks about a mistery and mythological creature known as Bone Carver. And here the voice of Lance king fits amazingly as the hero on the story, and the keys of Jonah makes we who listen the album, enter in this amazing story with more ease.
All the band is amazing, but I decided to focus on Lance and Jonah for being the reason I stopped at Pyramaze
The first song I will share with you is the 6th music and my favourite one, She Who Summoned Me, in this song the hero in deep doubt on himself is asked by a woman to help her. For some reason at the time I first heard this song there was a girl who messed with my head to, and this part
"Why am I here, Where do I go
Has someone called me
Then please tell me so
And as I leave the shadows
I see her sitting there
Night turns into day
She's looking my way"
This part fits what I felt at the moment, she changed me, she doesn't know how much as I never allowed her to know. so here it is, She who Summoned Me. In the song The Bone carver gains inner strength for what's to come
The 7th song is called The Bone Carver, in this song our hero finally understands where is his power, what to do to be victorious, a moment of change, as he says at the end
Today I bring you an amazing song with a powerful video, This reminds us how easy it is to get stuck in a routine after losing our beloved ones and be afraid to move on, fear we lose their rememberance
Here a quick post to say that has November arrives my posts will become Weekly or twice a week, I will try do choose only a day, October was different, as I didn't post anything in so long, I posted more, but now, I am slowing down also to allow who visits to blog to read the stuff I put in. Saturday will be that day, only part post will be added with less time between them when it is justified and then some pots might arrive Wednesday to
To not let a post go without anything to hear, I leave you Testament - DNR (Do Not Resuscitate)
The Thought is simple, recently here in Portugal there was elections and by the time I am writing this post, I prepare earlier my post when I have time so the post don't become dependent of me coming here every week for example. But I became Amazed recently how so many people loves to talk about what they think it is politics but in fact they don't know anything. Here in Portugal we have a semi-Presidentialist system, where we elect the deputies to house of representatives and from it the President of the Republic elects the Prime minister, lots of people thought we elected the prime minister directly... really? were everyone simple in last years? what resulted from this is PSD/CDS from right as PaF, alone got more deputies than the other forces, but together the left PS(socalist party, center-left)+BE(moderated left+some communist ideals)+PCP(portuguese Comunist party) have the absolute majority of the house fo representatives, when our dumb president Cavaco Silva decided to nominate Passos as prime minister he elected a colligation who has a relative advantage on the house of representatives, but have lack of deputies to approve anything at all, cause all that is to increase taxes and cut on health and education, they will not have the support to let it pass, unless PS decides to absent to some stuff. Let's see, but Portugal has since November 1975, always variating between PS and PSD, the chair rotates between them, but even though everyone panics when a change is possible.
DNR fits here
Open doors... open minds...
Ending all the madness I hate
As I was checking my scheduled posts, I spotted a big gap between Sonata's artica posts and the next one, and being that one not that rich, I decided to share something today. So I decided to post Altaria, something I am entering right now, it's power metal band with elements of progressive, some might also consider it white metal(yes it exists, white metal is christian metal).
But that is not what makes me post this, it is their good sound, so I will leave you until the next post with Prophet of Pestilence and Unchain The Rain from 2004's Album Divinity
Here it is the second part of my Sonata Artica Post, this time about Reckoning Night, one again I will share some songs with you and share my extracted meaning form them, with you.
I Will start with Ain't Your Fairytale, it's a very strong song, there are lots of bands in metal who talk about werewolves as it is a fantasy common thing. But almost none talks about the Wolves on themselves.
Ain't Your Fairytale, shows us the story of I think an Ancient Wolf who shares the story of its ancestors to their young fellows. And talks how first man and Wolves had a pact to not attack each other, but then things changed. Wolves haven't being very lucky recently while being hunted as the ones from the same species, dogs are treated almost as kings. something is not that right in this equation.
The second one is Don't way a word, the second part of End of This Chapter trilogy, in this case he is back, he is decided to end what he has started, he is disposed to kill the girl to have peace, as sh says to the girl if she can't fulfil her part of the pact they might have done in the past, done she might be quiet. I don't know the third part that well, Juliet as I don't like the album where the song is, but for the name of the song, I think he really kills the girl on this song, his sickened ways arrive to an end.
The Third one, The Boy Who Wanted to be a Real Puppet, This one is quiet simple it's a boy who has so much anxiety to become a real puppet that allow his greed to take over, on the process the puppeteer turns him a puppet but soon the boy understands the life of a Puppet is hard, he realises he submitted to greed and says only a knife could end this story, being him a puppet now i think it's easy to understand what the knife would do
The 4th one, My Selene, a song that starts like a dream, he always awaits his Selene, every night, but as soon as he realises his Selene is a way for he, who was always alone, be able to feel less alone. But as he understands Selene will never apear, and the would never meet, the dream becomes a nightmare, and then his hope fades. At some point we understand the title Selene, with the reference to Endymion, because being she a goddess, goddess of the moon, being in love with a mortal can only bring pain.
The Last one Shamandalie, well this talks about a friendship become something else, and has he understands while becoming lovers and the situation ending the feelings he had for her seem like a sham and a Lie. More direct than this a song can't be. The song as lots of emotion associated
Today I bring you my Favourite period of Sonata Arctica the Albums Silence(2001) and Reckoning Night (2004)
I
think what makes this two albums my favourite ones is the the presence
of the progressive part, but mainly if in Silence we have Tony kakko,
Jani Liimatainen and Mikko Härkin, in Reckoning Night we stil
lhave the first two, where the presence of Jani is well noted. From this
album the band has lacked the heart and the soul it had before.
In
this first part I will share the ones from Silence, where I will share
some of the ones who have more meaning to me, and try to share with you
the meaning I found in them.
The first one: False
News Travel Fast, with the participation of Timo Kotipelto from
Stratovarius, This talks about how fast nasty and false news arrive
everywhere and sometimes how someone may be hurt for somthing he might
not have done
The
second one: The end of This Chapter, here is the first part of a
triology found by the fans. In this song, he contacts her beloved one,
everyone told them to be put apart of each other and he never accepted,
arriving to a point where he stalks her and sings bed side with her, but
at this time he can't to anything. He assumes he is not stable and just
wants to be sure she haven't forgot her, but does this in a real sick
away
Third
one, Last Drop Falls, this one is about love how sometimes a man in
love accepts everything his partner does, and even at any repeated
mistake she does he accepts her back. However at the end of the song he
sweats the last word on their relationship will be from him and says he
will scream out the love for her until the last drop. A bit dramatic
song but if you like emotion, well here you have plenty
Now
one of the most strong songs in content, Sing in Silence, maybe a lot
don't know about this side of Sonata Arctica but sometimes they had some
important stuff in their songs, not that love is not important, but
share some other situations. Sing in Silence is an excellent Analogy to a
drug addict, the monkey is the burden brought by the drugs, and how so
many times our friends and family fail to notice, the "monkey" climbing
on our back or even helps the monkey out. When the girl tries to shoo
away the monkey she can, and the song ends:
How can I erase your pain and aid you
When Death wants to kiss you and you want kiss Him back...
At
last I will share the Wolf and the raven, there were some others I
could share too, but I don't want to make this post even bigger than it
already is. Wolf and the Raven is a story, where a Wolf is being held
captive and slavery controled by the raven, all time he begs for mercy
to be set free and at a point the Wolf dreams of eating the raven. And
the wolf talks about how enticed he is. In the song it's an analogy he
shows how he is like the wolf tired of the situation and one day he will
turn against the raven of his life.
Today I bring you something totally different, one of my recently pleasurable findings. Directly form late 60's, the first time I heard it, I intermediately started to love it. Scott Walker is an North American singer, born in Hamilton, Ohio, USA.
I stumble upon Scott Walker after while listening The Last Shadow Puppets, Age of the understatement, someone pointed the influence of Scott Walker there
Music to hear with pleasure, songs beautifully constructed, some from already existing ones in France and Belgium.
The first one I am going to show you is called "Jackie", From Scott 2, a song which is a remake of an original one from Jacques Brel.
This one is my favourite one, a Ballad from Scott 2 album, "Best of Both Worlds"
This one is a version of a Frank Sinatra's song, which on it's hand is a version of Ne Me Quittes Pas from Jacques Brel, it's called "If you go Away"
The last song is a strong one, very well composed with a sound more elaborated, from "Five easy pieces, 2nd album" Joanna.
Hope you enjoy this as much as me, After several day posting stuff I start to publish more spaced in time to let who may be able to read my blog to listen carefully what I bring
Greetings, and see you soon
Today I present you Caligula's Horse a band from Australia, In this blog you will be presented with bands from all over the world, if there is a good band in a country i hope to be able to find it.
The first song I bring to you is "The City has no Empathy" from Moments of Ephemeral City album from 2011, their first album
Recently in 2015, they release a new album Bloom where I share with you "Firelight", Their sound is more near what a progressive rock band sounds like but here and there we see some of the elements from progressive metal. Check it out
This post is to evoke an amazing concert I was lucky to assist from Porcupine Tree mastermind Steven Wilson in September here in Portugal. As a good English artist one of the first concerts ever that started at supposed time, really good
The first song from Steven Wilson work I will share is the amazing Harmony Corine from 2011's album Insurgentes, energy, strength in a single music, simply amazing, when it plays live everyone notices immediately
From The Raven that Refused to Sing from 2013 I have to share both singles with you, such a strong message, don't know if Steven lost someone on his life, but this songs remind how when we tragically lost someone we knew and loved, sometimes is hard to let it go. This two Songs The Raven that Refused to Sing and Drive Home, shows us how in those moments, sometimes the biggest darkness is in ourselves, we forgot to live stuck in guilt, sometimes for something we are not guilty. enjoy
From the last album, I could have shared a lot of songs as all of them are amazing, but I will leave you today with Hand. Cannot. Erase song which is the same name as the album, release in 2015, this year.
Today I will share with you one awesome band which I ignored for quiet a while until my two months in India, where I started hearing it with much frequence. The soul of this band is Steven Wilson an amazing musician
The first Song I am going to share with all of you is "Don't hate me" from Stupid Dream album of 1999, I really enjoy this song is strong without being harsh at any point, helps soothe the soul
The second song I am going to share with you is called Trains, from In Absentia album release on 2002
The last song, they Have so wonderful songs/musics, check them all out if you don't know porcupine Tree, is Lazarus a strong song which Steven Wilson always dedicates to someone on concerts, this song is From 2005's album Deadwing
Greetings
Today I am going to show you a band most of people never heard about before, for those of you who did it, it's never too much hear them again
I am talking about Soen
This band is composed by Martin Lopez(Opeth, Amon Amarth), Steve DiGiorgio (Death, Testament, Sadus), Kim Platbarzdis and Joel Ekelöf.
The main note here is the similarities with Tool, especially the vocalist Joel Ekelöf which sound so much like Maynnard James Keenan from Tool.
I don't know if it because of Bassist change, the first Album Cognitive is for me much better than the second one, Tellurian
The progressive elements are present, the presence of many musicians of progressive bands helps understand the influence, as their sound is not so dark in ambience as Tool's
Cognitive - 2012
Tellurian - 2014
The Song I will share from Cognitive is the official video, Savia. This song I think is about independence and autonomy of decision.
From Tellurian I leave you Tabula Rasa. About this one I leave you to extract the meaning of this one.
This was another project where DC Cooper was in between appearances in Royal Hunt, this album Walk the Earth from 2007 is one of the albums, I leave you my favourite Track with the same name, Walk The earth is a song about finding our place on this Earth
After my last Post, some might ask what DC Cooper did out of Royal Hunt? so the answer is an amazing solo album, where for instance he has also David Readman, Ex-Adagio, Pink Cream 69 with him as back vocals.
All The album is so much a must hear, I decide to leave you my favourite ones, one that I felt the need to upload it to Youtube, and two more of my recent addictions.
Starting with Three Generations, the song is about having an absent/bad father and being eager to not be like him, but realising we ended just like him
Then to Take Me In, a romantic song a bit about forgiveness
This one is heavy emotionally, Forgive Me, where the one who sings it apologizes for something he must have made
After quitting in 1997 a lot of fans never ceases to ask for the return of North American DC Cooper to the band
in 2011, after a first appearance live with the band, DC returned to the band to a new official album "Show me How to Live". Now we can hear, DC Cooper is more mature as the sound of the band, more than 10 years passed.
In 2013 another Album "A Life to Die For", here I leave you Signs of Yesterday my favourite track from this album, for me the album is a bit weaker than the 2011 one, but still pretty good:
In 2015, Royal Hunt started a Crowdfunding to get the funds to make a new album, Devil's Dozen, Here I leave you the song, Until the day, I think some of you might still enjoy the sound, but for me is not so pleasurable has other albums it lacks some originality, the major point to me is still DC Cooper's voice. The things is even the less good works of Royal Hunt are still so much better than several mainstream albums of most bands
In 1995 album Moving Target, Royal Hunt not only embraces completely the progressive metal in its splendour as DC Cooper enters the band, the difference is immense, DC is for me one of the best metal vocalists, clean with good range voice. With DC Cooper enters the band also some need to embrace higher social worries.
DC Cooper
In Moving Target, the Single taken is called Last goodbye, Checking the part Down to the Needle Park on lyrics, is easy to understand the music is about a drug addicted.
In 1997, Royal Hunt Release my favourite album so far, Paradox, the one I felt the urge to Buy it as soon as i Found it, they touch strong thematics like religious scepticism, anguish, the markings of time and how a dependence of someone just to be able to live is too strong. The song I will leave you is Called Message to god, here the edited version of the official video
cross this Post and the last one and check the difference in the era with or without DC Cooper
Today I am going to start a 3 part post about one of my favourite bands of Progressive metal, Royal Hunt
I am going to divide the post in 3 and not 4 parts as it should for a reason I am about to explain
There are 4 phases in this Danish Band
1- Starting Phase where André Andersen does both Keyboards and Vocals 2 - DC Cooper from USA enters the band to make the vocals 3 - DC Cooper leaves Royal Hunt for some time, to do other projects 4 - DC Cooper returns to Royal Hunt After a lot of requests from fans to André Andersen
the thing is, for me the Royal Hunt in between DC Cooper is much weaker so I will leave not talk about it.
So let's start with the first phase with André Andersen in Keyboards and Vocals There are 2 albums to talk about in this part of Royal Hunt's life
Land of Broken Hearts In this album we see a clear influence of typical metal of early 90's as this album is from 1991. More of a harsh, raw sound Here I leave you, Running Wild
Clown in the Mirror Here starts to gain evidence the tendency to Progressive metal, but still a lot of influence from early 90's power metal. the melody mainly in song with same name as the album is notorious. Here for you Clown in the mirror
Royal Hunt is a problem to put videos, easily they are removed from youtube, I can't understand this, mainly with albums impossible to find Nowadays
I already posted something with portuguese influence, however, Ava despite being amazing are not entirelly portuguese the founding member is from Norway, Rune Eriksen.
So today I bring you an 100% portuguese band, Painted Black, I could define their sound as a heavy and dark atmosphere, with some evolution of sound, merging together the progressive and doom metal, to an extent that I appreciate, probably not the biggest new band out there, but worth to hear
follow their Website at: http://www.painted-black.org/ if you like what I am about to share with you, I will start with the first album Cold Comfort from 2010, starting with my favourite song, Shadowbound
There is also available from the same album a song called Inevitability, which someone used the song for the backmusic of a video about the movie "The Fountain", this movie I confess is one of the most fucked up ones I already seen, but yet a good one to see as only at the end you will understand anything.
Recently in 2014 they released a new EP, called "Quarto Vazio", it was available for download at their website, don't know if it is by time I am posting this. One of the songs on this EP is a version of Perfect Drug, from Nine Inch Nails
The song Quarto Vazio, is one emotionally heavy song
Well I have several bands on progressive to post, but as they need much more time to prepare what I want to share, I decided to post something still on metal. This is a remembrance of the original power metal with only an addition, the super cool costumes they were, this a band started from the mentor of Alestorm Christopher Bowes.
The first Album revealed us the "Tales from the Kingdom of Fife", where we learned a lot of what is about to come and how evil the wizard Zargothrax is. Muahahahah, cof cof
well This one is from 2013, I heard it a lot when I was in India
this band recalls more the fantastic world, and they are amazing at that, with a different voice with a voice not so sharp, more powerful, more deep
Recently, very recently, in late September they released "Space 1992: Rise Of The Chaos Wizards", now the battle leaves Scotland and Dundee, and becomes an intergalatic battle, First with "Rise of the chaos Wizards" and then "Universe on fire"
This band is not from metal either, but is totally from progressive rock, I stumble upon this one in May/June and since than I have been sharing it with some people, and a lot seem to enjoy as much as me. This band are original from Canada, With a name that brought them some problems, already, at this times being connected with the Tea Party in a political prespective is not that good.
So they are called The Tea Party, released the new album at the end of 2014, form the album "The Ocean At The End".
If you like songs with a slow start, which evolve constantly with some experimental sounds and sound involvement all over the song, than The Tea Party is impossible to miss. Here with a special Participation of Jethro Tull, on a song called "The Ocean at the End"
I Left a curious conversation I found on web:
Samir Nagheenanajar: "No-one in this country can ever pronounce my name
right. It..it's not that hard. Na-ghee-na-na-jar...Nagheenanajar." The Tea Party: "Well, at least your name isn't The Tea Party." Samir Nagheenanajar: "You know, there is nothing wrong with that name." The Tea Party: "No, there WAS nothing wrong with it, until we were about
12 years old and those no talent ass-clowns became famous for starting a
political movement." Samir Nagheenanajar: "Why don't you just go by The Party instead of The
Tea Party?" The Tea Party: "No way, why should we change? They're the ones who
suck."
At the time I was written my previous Post I found an addictive song/band. It isn't metal but has some elements of progressive rock, we can say some evolution in sound, the presence of the guitars, is not all the music in progressive, but has several elements.
The band is called Lonely Robot, check their new official video for the new album "Please Come Home", released on February, 2015. Lonely Robot is a project of John Mitchell from UK
Lyrics
He was a small boy, lived on the outside of the world you know
Stared at a ceiling, hollow of feeling, no real place to go
People would speak to him, words that were missing, made him feel apart
So his father bought him a metal companion, a voice that spoke afar
(Chorus)
So why did you go? You made it clear, you had no fear
You’re the boy in the radio
So why did you go? We fought these tears, we waited years
For the boy in the radio, the boy in the radio
Ever so slowly, it spoke to his soul and he started to feel alive
Out of the static and into the attic, came feeling from the wires
And turning the dial, he wished for a while that he could be there too
A valve or resistor he could call sister, a friend he could hold on to
(Chorus)
No more tears, living fears
No more tears now
To complete the first update about the bands I already presented on this blog, let's finish this part with one of my favourite bands, the British band Threshold. Recently They released a new album called For the Journey
As I stated in June 2014, Threshold sound different in every album and mainly with each vocalist
With Damian Wilson the progressive elements are more present than ever, his voice complements better this type of sound, increases the length of the instruments. Always with the caustic tone that's their trademark
I will start by sharing with you, Watchtower on the moon
And now the official video, which I appreciate a lot, Unforgiven
Stay tuned later today and in the next days cause there are some programmed posts to appear later. with new artists, only one really form progressive metal, but I think you would like what's about to come
Ava Inferi have ended but they have released this last song, check it, even being in Portuguese, you can read the translation cause is already in youtube comments, called "Ao teu Lado"
My last post was precisely about Symphony X, so what a better way to restart than with symphony X new material?
Well there are Two Reasons, to which I decided to bring back Symphony X so
soon after my post in late 2014, The first one and most important to me, they are back in Portugal, Lisbon,
on February 28, 2016 and finally a good chance to hear them live, only
dependent of some logistic problems, I went recently to 4 concerts and
always buying something in the merchandising becomes expensive, but so
worthy
The second good reason is the new album Underworld
I haven't heard yet the new album as a whole, I like to hear the albums with ease to detect all there is to detect and because a lot of albums don't enter in our minds at the first audition, so I have so much to hear in these days, that I have to catch an opportunity.
I already heard several times the first lyric video for this album Nevermore, It makes me remember the power on Set the World on fire, and knowing Russel Allen was in a parallel project called Adrenaline Mob, that sound a bit alike this nevermore, A strong and powerful song, check it
Here it is another lyric video, lyric videos are a common thing now, they understood they promote better a song than just the music, another song from Underworld, this song is musically near the sound of When All is Lost, Candelight Fantasia, I love bands wich can produce a wide range of emotions in songs, this one is called Without You
I talked about Adrenaline Mob, a side project from Russel Allen, check this one to, maybe some of you will enjoy it, maybe even more than Symphony X.
At last I am going to share another song from Iconoclast That I am becoming addicted, because of the lyrics, music, and all the musical environment around, the song is called, Electric Messiah, being a fan more of metal guitars than of drums as a lot of people I know, a messiah that's electric, almost like the guitar as the messiah, good connection
Yeah a lot happens in one month, sadly not professionally, but musically so much changed in this period, and I checked the way I was writing the posts here is not the smarter way. Makes the posts dated and harder to read later. so From now on despite keeping the old posts and editing to correct some huge english flaws, mainly cause by mistypes. However even if needed be to make more posts in a day it's better, not only to not keep this blog outdated but to be able now to post new stuff I found and to post all it's coming out.
What can I say of what's about to come is some of the already posted bands released new material, some bands I was already to post something of released also new material, but the major point is some cool stuff I found in progressive, out of metal. and some out of metal stuff that are really enjoyable, to keep the pace balanced between heavier and soft sounds.
I am yet to decide the new post structure, but I will think about that tomorrow. Wait for it...
Today I make the last post of 2015, this is my Christmas Present to anyone who stumble upon my blog, hope on the last two months I might be able to show some cool stuff, some that you might already knew, and some new stuff
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