Devin Townsend - Transcendence Review

Its with delight that every time I hear a news story about Devin Townsend I know hes about to release a new album or announce a tour, and more recently a DVD live concert. To date he has never disappointed so it was with great sadness to report that his new album Transcendence fails to delight and has become just another "business as usual" release.

One of the things I love most about Devin is that every album has been unique and represents a part of his personality and musical tastes at the time of writing, and knowing the way he writes (i.e. alone and all from within) makes every song special.

Devin has played with musical styles and even formats, such as working as a band and as a solo artist, yet somehow his latest album perhaps marks the end of his original material. For starters this is the first band written album he has been involved with, unless you include Vai's Sex and Religion which he ironically hated as a recording and touring experience. By that he came up with riffs and melodies, and the rest of the band worked with him on the composing making it a band effort rather than a Devin effort.

For this original and fresh musician to open the album with a new version of an old song oddly sets the tone for the album, instead of new exciting band orientated songs, we get Truth, the opening track from Ocean Machine: Biomech. The rest of the songs rarely improve upon this song.



If youve never heard Devin then this is a great entry album, for everyone else it wont hold any surprises.

4/10

Two's a Company, Three's a Crowd. It's Time for Janick Gers to Go

A bold statement, and one I hope to back up.

Despite a bumpy and punk influenced start, Iron Maiden finally reached maturity when it released the album The Number of the Beast. While Clive Burr left the band after a promotional tour for the album, the core of the band was there.

Despite having a few missteps over the years, the band, in my opinion have been consistent in slowly pushing the band and its sound forward, and while there were a couple of side steps (Somewhere in Time), and a mixture of styles (Nicko McBrain is a jazz drummer, Dave Murray a bluesman, Adrian Smith a rock guitarist), they came together to make something unique.

There have been instances where a band has toured with more than two guitarists on stage, but never as a permanent lineup for so many albums.

Traditionally when an ex-guitarist rejoins a band, the "newcomer" packs his bags and goes. Not with Janick. Instead the first time I saw them live was on the Rock in Rio DVD and while sonically it was Iron Maiden, visually it was a mess.

Dave Murray and Steve Harris have said the reason they kept three guitarists was because in the studio they already were double and triple tracking the guitar sound anyway, but as an audience member having three guitarists makes it harder to identify who is playing what.

At least when it was just Dave and Adrian you could distinguish between the two musicians in their solo styles. Janick has nothing going for him, nothing which makes him standout. Maybe Bruce has a soft spot for him as he was in Gillan and helped Bruce write the Tattooed Millionaire album with him? Janick's style is more blues based, and I think doesnt add much to the sound of Maiden.

My reasoning behind this is the albums where he was in Iron Maiden along with just Dave Murray, they managed to produce the weakest set of albums in their history.

No Rest for the Wicked
Fear of the Dark
The X-Factor
Virtua XI

Hardly a CV of proud music, and compared to the rest of their output, it genuinely looks like a consistently weak set of releases. There may have been other factors involved, but regardless a good guitarist makes a good sound.

Paul Gilbert - 2 Below Par Releases on the Trot.

I love Paul Gilbert, I love his humour, I love his self-designed/cheap looking website (until recently when it went professional www.paulgilbert.com) and I love his music. Or loved.

But after listening to his latest album, "I Can Destroy", I am left wondering if this is just another album that will fade into mediocrity. The songs are average, and the instrumentals just uninspiring. One of the features I used to look forward to on his albums was his cover versions, which were either an exact duplicate of the original or something far more interesting.

His last album "Stone Pushing Uphill Man" suffered from equally disappointing sounds, and like the most recent one I will not be going back for a 2nd listen.

Its difficult for a solo artist to maintain quality output especially as they write/compose on their own without outside influence, but to say that the last good Paul Gilbert album was back in 2005 with his "Space Ship One" is a sad state of affairs.

Clearing out the New Trash

Im happy to say my music is sorted and tidy.
I can now begin going through the music I have saved and relisten with fresh ears and decide if these new bands can make the cut second time around.

Metallica's St. Anger - Retro Review

I decided to give it a go. 11 years after they released the album, I decided to give St Anger by Metallica another go. They deserve all the divisive reviews they got when they released this album, and Im here trying to break it down just what they got wrong and right.

Firstly the sound. I know they went for a stripped down sound with no dubbing or mixing but at the very least they could have made it sound less like jamming in a garage and closer to a stage / soundcheck quality.

Lars Ulrich has always tried to innovate his drum sound, but on this album his drums grate in your face constantly. It sounds like his drum kit consists of a cow bell and a trash can. It takes a immense effort to overcome this.

Guitarwise (and bass wise too) it sounds fresh, energetic and raw. It sounds like a band working out the demos just before they enter the studio proper and the final practise sessions before they move in and begin recording. I think the rejection of wanting to have guitar solos for any of the songs is a brave move, but closer to what a band would sound like in the raw. It wouldnt have hurt for Kirk Hammet or James Hetfield to have improvised a guitar solo jam over the top now and then. Surprisingly for a album with no solos, some of the songs can go on for a considerable amount of time, over 8 minutes in places.

The time between Reload and St Anger was a long time, time enough to have worked out 2 albums worth of material including solos and mixing, so to my ears and many other Metallica fans this sounds unfinished incomplete and unsatisfying. But look beneath the rough exterior and you will find some solid guitar work and more.

The more in this instance is an incredible improvement with James Hetfield's vocal ability. He sings now with far more emotion that he has done, and is closer to the style from the Load and Reload albums, especially on the title track.

Metallica (i.e. Lars and James) have done some dickhead things in their career, drugs, tattoos, alcohol, pro-gun lobby, Napster but to quote James "I'm madly in Anger with you.". But we, the fans are mad because deep down we really do love them, care about them and want them not to make arseholes of themselves.

Lets see how my opinion of Death Magnetic changes and then I may feel brave enough to try Lulu.

Adventures in Music Part 3 1980s Part 2

At some point I was given a old mono record player by someone living in our house. The record player was so old and useless that should really have been thrown away, it barely managed to screech out sounds and most likely ruined the few vinyl albums I played on it. It wasn’t long before I was bought a better stereo/record player. I used it to mainly play the 7inch singles that were lying around and the vinyl albums that both my mum and step-dad owned. We actually had three of these record players at one point in our house. My brother had one in his bedroom, so did I, and my parents had one in the lounge.

I remember the first vinyl record I was able to influence being bought was ADAM AND THE ANTS’ Kings of the Wild Frontier. The only reason I got to choose this album was on the proviso my brother also got to choose an album too. He choose the soundtrack to the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It was the start of a luckily short-lived career of bad decision making purchases by him that thankfully ended with A-HA. My parents bought the Pickwick Records version of the film Grease soundtrack that I later failed to trade for the Cluedo boardgame, but thats another story.

I listened to my new album purchase over and over again, and I began to discover music shops as being a place to explore new music. Most of the music I wanted to explore wasn't mainstream. I tended to visit the independent record shops as none of the main shops stocked this kind of music. I discovered that ADAM AND THE ANTS had back material and bought some of their 7inch singles and their Dirk Wears White Socks album showcasing music from their punk beginnings. It was their earlier material I enjoyed rather than the mixed banquet that was Prince Charming that they released after Kings. Only a couple of the songs were decent from Prince Charming, the title track and Stand and Deliver made a mockery of the music and it became embarrassing to admit to liking glam punk and such a “popular” song. They went from a punk to new romantic to ridicule in a matter of weeks.

I didn't identify with punk music, even though it had its roots in the 1950s and 1960s rock and roll. Punks had a reputation that was far worse than rockers and mods. Punks in Ipswich were notorious for causing trouble at birthday parties.

I found myself getting into anything that wasn't mainstream, including SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK, which was more electro-punk, and one of the few times I didn't buy a good album. I bought it because it was recommended to me from the same friend who got me into ADAM AND THE ANTS, without any other reliable music source I bought the album.

Jeff LaBar - Cinderella Guitarist Solo Album

I love Cinderella, and I love Jeff LaBar, I think he is an under-rated bluesman, but after watching this video Im prepared to reverse my opinion of him.

He plays a tedious blues song that is of his own composition and manages to get a woman to co-star in the music video with who (and Im sorry for saying this) but your a-typical prostitute - I though Jeff would have better taste in women...

Enjoy or not as the case may be.