Old favourites release new music in 2021: Part 2

Following on from Part 1, here’s the second set of new 2021 releases by my favourite rock and metal artists. These are six albums from Iron Maiden, Yes, Dream Theater, Mastodon and Jerry Cantrell and Black Label Society.

Iron Maiden – Senjutsu (3rd Sep): Veteran British heavy metal outfit Iron Maiden released their seventeenth studio album to widespread acclaim last September. Their trademark sound is on full display – the guitar attack from Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers, Steve Harris‘ galloping bass and Nicko McBrain‘s thunderous drums. It’s certainly no mean feat for these musicians to maintain this level of technical prowess while in their 60’s; even Bruce Dickinson hits his familiar high notes on most songs. The double album clocks in at 82 minutes, with most songs running at 6 minutes or longer. The best are the four long ones written by bassist Steve Harris, 9-12 minutes long: Lost in a Lost World takes a couple of minutes to get going before the chugging rhythm guitars step in to deliver a really propulsive middle section, eventually ending with an anthemic chorus towards the end; the 12-minute-long Parchment kicks off with a majestic guitar intro which instantly establishes it as a contender for a best-of collection; Death of the Celts has the most varied vocals of the album, alternating between rhythmic and soaring, and is interspersed by long instrumental sections containing familiar Maiden guitar riffs and hooks; and the closing track Hell on Earth carries a peppy and hummable riff that belies its dark subject matter. The remaining tracks didn’t really capture my imagination, but with more than 40 minutes of great music, there’s no reason to complain!

Yes – The Quest (1st Oct): This is the seminal prog-rock group’s twenty-second studio album, and the first without any of their founding members (bassist Chris Squire having passed away in 2015). It’s still a legitimate Yes album, as the personnel include guitarist Steve Howe, who has played on all their classic albums of the 70’s, and keyboardist Geoff Downes, who kicked off the band’s post-Anderson/Wakeman era with the 1980 album Drama (and perhaps better known as a member of The Buggles who had the 1979 hit, Video Killed the Radio Star). On The Quest, the band retain their trademark vocal harmonies led by the outstanding Jon Davison, delivering a mellow album of beauty and variety. The opening track, The Ice Bridge, sounds like one of their classic AOR songs, with an endearing string-section riff thrown in (reminiscent of 70’s disco tracks!). The FAMES Studio Orchestra from North Macedonia brings a cinematic lushness to Dare to Know, with its horns and strings sections. Future Memories is a hypnotic and poetic track enlivened by Steve Howe’s Fender Stringmaster steel guitar. The magical Music to My Ears, alternates between a soothing, lilting verse and a fast-paced chorus. A Living Island has a bit of everything – acoustic guitars, Jon Davison’s vocals channeling Jon Anderson’s 70’s sound, and lead guitar solos, pitter-patter drumming (of the sort I loved in Kate Bush‘s 2005 track, Somewhere in Between). All three songs on Disc 2 are exceptional – the beautiful Sister Sleeping Soul (featuring a Portuguese 12-string guitar), the Beatles tribute song Mystery Tour and the incongruously cheerful eco-awareness song Damaged World (great vocal combo from Davison and Howe). This is an album that keeps getting better with repeated listening.

Dream Theater – A View from the Top of the World (22nd Oct): The prolific, long-lived, much-loved and highly respected American prog-metal band hit pay dirt with their 15th studio album, as it secured their first ever Grammy win for the 9-minute-long epic, The Alien. As much affection as I have for this band, I have to admit that I haven’t fallen in love with a full album since 2002’s Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. On average, I have ended up liking only a couple of songs each on their subsequent 8 albums, and this one is no different. This time, it’s Transcending Time, which gives off strong Rush vibes (specifically, Red Barchetta) that I find irresistible. Awaken the Master is also quite good, with it’s sinister and dramatic syncopation between drums and rhythm guitar. The album closes with the 20-minute title track structured as a 3-part suite, which I found a bit generic, and which I think, is a good description for the entire disc.

Mastodon – Hushed and Grim (29th Oct): I’ve covered this band recently as part of my series on favourite concept albums. This album is not a concept album and therefore wasn’t included in that post, but has emerged as their most accomplished work. A double-album clocking in at a combined length of 86 minutes, it is chock-full of fantastic tracks such as Sickle and Peace, More Than I Could Chew and Teardrinker from Disc One, and Peace and Tranquility, Gobblers of Dregs and Gigantium from Disc Two. The band’s sound has certainly evolved over their 8 studio albums, and for a first-time listener, I would recommend this album to start with. Sickle and Peace starts off like a song from the band America, and Teardrinker is as radio-friendly a song as they have ever released (with Octopus Has No Friends from The Hunter coming close).

Jerry Cantrell – Brighten (29th Oct): Given that Jerry Cantrell is the guitarist, co-vocalist and main songwriter for 90’s grunge powerhouse Alice in Chains, it’s not surprising that his solo efforts have had a very similar sound. This continues to be the case with his third solo album, Brighten. Although that should have appealed to me as an Alice in Chains fan, it felt rather like listening to a sonic facsimile – sounds the same, but missing something. There are a couple of exceptions – Had to Know sounds like vintage AIC and the easy-going Dismembered is tinged with Southern Rock. Nobody Breaks You is also listenable. I think it’s pretty clear that I don’t have that much to say about the album, except that it could play as background music in a crowded bar.

Black Label Society – Doom Crew Inc. (26th Nov): Former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde formed BLS (named after his favourite brand of whiskey) in 1999, with Doom Crew Inc. being the band’s 11th studio album. It’s the first one I’ve listened to since album #4, The Blessed Hellride from 2003. Looking like a viking god, Wylde personifies heavy metal and hasn’t compromised his look or sound over the years. The flip side of that is they haven’t evolved that much musically, still sounding a lot like a Black Sabbath tribute band. Of course, that’s not such a bad thing, and if you want to a Sabbath clone, then Ruins is the go-to song, for it’s perfect replication of Ozzy’s vocals and Tony Iommi‘s chugging guitars. On the other hand, when the band goes for variety, it reaps dividends, as in the case of Forsaken, which sounds a lot like a cross between Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. Likewise, my top track in the album is the “macho ballad” Forever and A Day, with such a different vocal sound, that I’m not even sure it’s Zakk Wylde singing.

That concludes my snapshot of 12 new albums released by veteran rock and metal bands in 2021. As I mentioned at the end of part 1, I really enjoyed listening and re-listening to these albums over the past few weeks as I was writing these posts. 2022 is already looking promising, with releases from Jethro Tull, Steve Vai, Scorpions, Sabaton, and Coheed & Cambria, already released or on the horizon.

Old favourites release new music in 2021: Part 1

In November 2020, I had published a two part post (Parts 1 and 2) about new studio albums from some of my favourite rock, hard rock and metal artists. The ensuing period of Covid-imposed lockdown time has given musicians plenty of time to write and record new music, and there was a similar bounty of riches in 2021. However, I had less time to listen to new music in 2021, and in fact, I discovered some of the late-2021 releases only a few weeks or days ago, hence the lateness of this 2021 recap. Given the limited listening time I had last year, I am covering hard rock/metal releases, and leaving out the lighter stuff. Here, in Part 1, I will cover new albums from Transatlantic, Liquid Tension Experiment, Gojira, Mammoth WVH, Styx and The Neal Morse Band.

Transatlantic – The Absolute Universe (5th Feb): Transatlantic is an international prog-rock band comprising two Americans (Neal Morse and Mike Portnoy), one Swede (Roine Stolt) and one Englishman (Peter Trewavas). I had listened to their debut album, SMPT:e (the initials of the band members’ surnames, with the “e” added on as a fun reference to the SMPTE timecode used in video recording), and had admired their technical proficiency. That was in 2000, and this is their fifth studio album, which is quite an achievement, considering these guys are all members of other bands with significant musical output. The Absolute Universe is a concept album which has been released in three formats, a 90-minute extended version titled Forevermore, a 64-minute abridged version titled The Breath of Life, and the deluxe package combining both. Their sound sits at the virtuoso end of the prog-rock spectrum, with long, technically complex instrumental solos, exemplified by the 8-minute opening track, Overture. In keeping with the concept album format, the songs all bleed into each other, so it’s like listening one continuous song. I can’t say that I really enjoyed the album, there were no catchy hooks, or vocal harmonies to make the songs memorable. As was the case with SMPT:e, I certainly admired their musicianship, but probably not an album I will be returning to.

Liquid Tension Experiment – Liquid Tension Experiment 3 (16th Apr): Twenty two years after their last studio release, comes a truly awesome new album from this prog-metal supergroup, comprising two current (guitarist John Petrucci and keyboardist Jordan Rudess) and one former (drummer Mike Portnoy) member of Dream Theater plus Chapman Stick virtuoso Tony Levin. For fans of Dream Theater, getting hold of this album is a no-brainer, as it carries a very similar sound. The version of the album I listened to on Spotify is the Deluxe Edition, which has five additional tracks in a “bonus disc” titled A Night at the Improv. Unlike most bonus sections, which contain material that wasn’t the first choice for the main album, everything here is a standout. This amazing, 2-hour-long album just grows on me with each listening. In the main disc, my favourite tracks are Beating the Odds, Liquid Evolution, Shades of Hope and the 13-minute opus Key to the Imagination, which I loved because of its eastern rhythms. Four of the five tracks in the bonus section are over 10 minutes and have a relaxed pace; Blink of an Eye and Solid Resolution Theory carry over the Dream Theater sound of the other tracks, while Your Beard is Good is a throwback with guitar riffs reminiscent of Wishbone Ash and some mellotron-like keyboard sounds, that could have come from Ray Manzarek of The Doors.

Gojira – Fortitude (30th Apr): Spotify tells me that Gojira was my most listened-to artist of 2021…and with good reason! This incredibly inventive album from the French heavy metal band shows just how sophisticated their sound has now become. The current line-up have been together since they changed their name from Godzilla in 2001 and their seventh studio album is their best yet, building on the critical acclaim of 2016’s Grammy-nominated Magma. This time around, the band adds elements of Pantera-style groove-metal to their foundational thrash metal sound. On the outstanding eco-protest track, Amazonia, they have incorporated the jaw harp to create a distinctive earthy rhythm; the song garnered them a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance. The most radio-friendly tune on the album is Another World, which was also the lead single. Frankly, if I start listing my favourite songs, I will end up naming almost every one; Born for One Thing, Hold On, New Found, Into the Storm, The Trails – each have a memorable riff, hook or vocal delivery style that elevate them beyond standard rock/metal songs. I strongly recommend heavy metal fans to start with this album and work their way through the band’s back catalogue, particularly Magma, From Mars to Sirius (2005) and The Link (2003).

Mammoth WVH – Mammoth WVH (11th Jun): Legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen died of cancer in October 2020. His son Wolfgang released the song, Distance, shortly afterwards in memory of his father. Six months later, the song was part of his debut album Mammoth WVH (referencing the original name of the band Van Halen and of course, Wolfgang’s initials). Although the album artist is listed also as Mammoth WVH (implying it’s a band), it’s actually all Wolfgang Van Halen – vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, bass, drums and keyboards! Given his pedigree, it is inevitable that the Van Halen band sound carries over into this album. The songs are all accessible, commercial and radio-friendly, each clocking in at 3-4 minutes. My three favourite tracks are Mammoth, Think it Over and Stone. Although this first effort doesn’t push any boundaries, I’m curious to see what this talented musician will produce in the coming years.

Styx – Crash of the Crown (18th Jun): The seventeenth studio album from the 70’s stadium rock icons comes nearly 50 years after the band’s formation. Co-founder James Young is still going strong, as is Tommy Shaw, whose entry as vocalist/guitarist in the late 70’s led to their biggest successes. The familiar rock-opera-style vocal harmonization hits you right from the get-go with the ultra-short intro track The Fight of Our Lives and then settles into a series of snappy songs, adding to a brisk (by today’s standards) 43-minute album. Lawrence Gowan‘s keyboards and Todd Sucherman‘s drums both get significant space on the album. I can’t say any of the songs stood out for me, but put together, the album is a great package that you can play to just enjoy “that Styx sound”; having said that, the title track does sound a lot like a Queen song!

The Neal Morse Band – Innocence & Danger (27th Aug): This is the only band in the list that I hadn’t listened to previously, but narrowly qualifies as an “old favourite”, as two of the band members, Neal Morse and Mike Portnoy, featured in Transatlantic, whose new album kicked off this post. The Neal Morse Band has a more conventional, commercial sound compared to Transatlantic, although Innocence & Danger does have two prog-rock epics – Not Afraid Pt. 2 is 20 minutes long and Beyond the Years is 31 minutes! But to balance these long, intricately structured prog-rock tracks, there are shorter, highly accessible, conventional rock tracks (including a cover of Bridge Over Troubled Waters). Four of the five band members sing, and this creates some great vocal harmonies; on the opening track Do It All Again, Neal Morse, guitarist Eric Gillette and keyboardist Bill Hubauer share lead vocal duties, with each one tackling a different section of the song. My favourite song, Bird on a Wire, also has the same three vocalists and is built around an anthemic keyboard riff from Bill Hubauer. Place in the Sun has a reggae-tinged intro and Another Story to Tell sounds like something out of a Billy Joel album. I have to admit, I had no idea how prolific Neal Morse is; he has a discography of more than 40 studio albums, covering his stints with prog-rock bands Spock’s Beard, Transatlantic and Flying Colors, as well as various solo efforts including nine Christian worship albums.

I had a lot of fun listening to all this new music. In Part 2, I will cover 2021 album releases from Iron Maiden, Yes, Dream Theater, Mastodon, Jerry Cantrell and Black Label Society.

A Criterion Channel journey, films #31-40

In the fourth part of my series of thumbnail sketches of films I’ve watched on the Criterion Channel streaming service, I cover 10 films I watched in the second half of October 2021. Whereas the earlier groups of 10 featured a varied mix of American classics and international arthouse films, this particular set were all English language films (nine American and one British production).

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946): This film caught my eye on the Criterion watch list, because it was billed as Kirk Douglas’ acting debut. The noir-drama hybrid kicks off with a dark backstory and then skips forward nearly two decades into a plot involving greed, blackmail and murder. It’s primarily an acting vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck who plays the dark-hearted, ambitious Martha Ivers. Kirk Douglas as her weakling husband, Van Heflin as her childhood friend and Lizbeth Scott form the other three points of a quasi love quadrangle. There aren’t any pleasant characters in the film, so I can’t say that I “liked” watching it, but it’s definitely an engrossing film, beautifully shot by Victor Milner and considered an important entry in the film noir pantheon. Director Lewis Milestone, is perhaps best known for winning an Oscar for the 1930 anti-war drama, All Quiet on the Western Front, and in the 1960s, he directed the original Ocean’s 11 and Mutiny on the Bounty with Marlon Brando.

Kirk Douglas and Barbara Stanwyck are an ill-matched husband and wife in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

The Long Voyage Home (1940): A rare John Ford effort that stars John Wayne, but isn’t a Western (the other notable one being The Quiet Man), this bittersweet drama chronicles the lives of sailors on-board a merchant ship in the midst of World War II. Fans of John Ford will recognize his trusted cohort of character actors (informally referred to as the John Ford Stock Company) who make recurring appearances in a number of his films – Thomas Mitchell, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond, John Qualen, Arthur Shields – who fill up the screen with their banter and antics. In fact, although Wayne receives top billing, he plays a supporting role in the film as the Swedish sailor Ole, a genial young man of few words. The sailors are shown as a brotherhood, who are deeply committed to each other, and their shipboard tasks, although they frequently argue and get into trouble with their captain. Frankly, they behave like a bunch of over-grown, but lovable children. It’s a relatively lightweight entry from John Ford, elevated by outstanding B&W cinematography by Gregg Toland, who a year later would capture the imagination of filmmakers around the world with his deep-focus cinematography on Citizen Kane.

The Brotherhood (1968): Paramount Pictures released this mafia drama that bombed at the box office and gave it an allergy to the genre, before The Godfather righted the scales four years later. The Brotherhood kicks off in Palermo, Sicily where American mafia boss Frank Ginetta (Kirk Douglas) and his wife are living in exile, under heavy guard, in his ancestral family village. The story then flashes back to explain how Ginetta, one of the top capos of the New York City mafia, fell from grace. Douglas is a truly remarkable actor, who can get into the skin of any character he plays…an extraordinary achievement for an actor who could have just relied on his rugged good looks. An early scene shows him at his gracious best during his younger brother’s wedding, charming the guests and dancing with the bride. Everything seems perfect in Ginetta’s life, but soon his headstrong approach puts him at odds with his own brother and the rest of the mafiosi. Director Martin Ritt was known for his sensitive portrayal of iconoclasts and loners (Paul Newman in Hud, Richard Burton in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Sally Field in Norma Rae), so one can understand why this story must have appealed to him.

Hold Your Man (1933): The third of six films pairing Clarke Gable with Jean Harlow, Hold Your Man is a breezy, comedy-drama typical of its time, featuring fast-talking, morally dubious protagonists, who end up having hearts of gold. The by-the-numbers plot was not designed to tax the brain cells, and six months after watching it, I honestly can’t remember much of the storyline. Fortunately, at just 87 minutes running time, it didn’t take up much of my time either. The film was one of director Sam Wood’s early efforts before he went on to fame directing the Marx Brothers in A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, and then Oscar-worthy material like Goodbye, Mr. Chips and For Whom The Bell Tolls.

The Dead (1987): One of the most satisfying films I’ve watched in recent years, The Dead was released posthumously after director John Huston‘s death in 1987. It was an international co-production involving UK’s Channel 4 and other companies. A large part of the film’s 83-minute runtime is set at an annual Epiphany dinner hosted by the three Morkan sisters – Kate, Julia and Mary Jane. Guests including family, friends and students of Mary Jane (who is a music teacher) arrive, mingle, converse, sing, dance, play music, eat, drink, laugh and argue. There is no plot as such, just a nostalgic peek into the lifestyle, culture and conversations of the upper middle class at the turn of the 20th century. The dinner culminates with a vote of thanks given by the sisters’ nephew Gabriel (a subtle performance by Irish acting great Donal McCann), the entire sequence bringing tears to my eyes. The last act represents a significant downshift in pacing and tone – Gabriel and his wife Gretta (Huston’s daughter Anjelica) having returned to their residence, have a heart-felt conversation about life and love and death, an incongruous end to a high-spirited evening. This film is a truly remarkable epitaph to John Huston’s storied five-decade-long career, which encompasses all-time classics such as The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, Moby Dick, The Misfits and The Man Who Would Be King.

Friends and family raise a toast to their hosts in the heart-warming Irish drama, *The Dead* (1987)

A Walk With Love and Death (1969): After watching Angelica Huston in The Dead, I jumped back in time to watch her debut film, also directed by her father. A historical romance and adventure drama, set during the 14th century Jacquerie uprising in northern France, Ms. Huston plays a young noblewoman who while on the run from armed peasants, crosses paths with a peace-loving student from Paris, who is journeying up to the coast. As both are caught up in the swirling violence of the revolt, they fall in love with each other and try their best to find peace and safety. This film is frequently overlooked during discussions of both father and daughter’s work. By today’s standards, it is too slow-paced to qualify as an adventure film and a bit tame for a romance. An interesting piece of trivia is the fact that Huston’s co-star in the film, Assi Dayan, was the son of Moshe Dayan, the Israeli Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs in the 70’s (famous for his distinctive eye patch).

Drums Along the Mohawk (1939): A typically entertaining Western from director John Ford, it features screen legends Claudette Colbert and Henry Fonda as a newly married couple, Lana and Gil Martin, who embark on frontier life in the Mohawk Valley, just as the events of the 1776 War of Independence are playing out. With the constant threat of attacks by Native Americans and British soldiers hanging over their heads, the Mohawk Valley settlers form a militia, who are called into action several times to protect their property. John Ford’s company of character actors including Ward Bond, Arthur Shields and John Carradine round out the cast, with character actress Edna May Oliver getting an Oscar nomination for playing the crotchety, but kind-hearted Mrs. McKlennar. Drums Along the Mohawk is one of director Ford’s lesser known films, sandwiched between two other Henry Fonda starrers he directed in the space of two years – Young Mr. Lincoln and the multi-award winning Grapes of Wrath.

Libeled Lady (1936): A screwball comedy featuring the classic pairing of Myrna Loy and William Powell, Libeled Lady was the fifth of their 14 films together (which included the six Thin Man murder-mystery films). However, it was an even bigger star, the “bombshell blonde” Jean Harlow, who got first billing, while rising star and future acting icon Spencer Tracy, rounded out the cast. The script allows all four actors to shine in a variety of entertainingly contrived situations, which ends with a happily-ever-after. Harlow would tragically die of kidney failure the following year at the age of 26. Libeled Lady was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, but lost to The Great Ziegfeld which also starred Loy and Powell.

Cluny Brown (1946): This film is a comedy of manners, constructed on a rather silly plot, but carried along by the exotic charm of Charles Boyer, for whose sake I watched it. Boyer plays Czech political refugee Adam Belinksi, who is invited by a high-society benefactor to stay with his parents at their country manor outside London. There, he enters into a platonic relationship with eccentric parlour-maid Cluny Brown (played by acclaimed actress Jennifer Jones), who has been sent by her uncle to work there, in order to “straighten her out”. Belinski and Brown enter into a platonic relationship, which becomes increasingly complicated due to Brown’s romantic entanglement with the local chemist. I was faintly amused by all the goings-on, but I can’t say that I really enjoyed it, which I suspect, is because I’ve never liked Jennifer Jones. This was the last film of director Ernst Lubitsch’s celebrated career, which included classics like Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner (remade as You’ve Got Mail, with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks) and To Be or Not to Be.

Lonely Are the Brave (1962): A neo-Western set in the 50’s, this film is an early example of the deconstruction of the Western genre, preceding the work of Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah, and ultimately, Clint Eastwood. Kirk Douglas considered it his favourite film, with cowboy Jack Burns among the most tragic of the many such characters he has played in his career. One of the posters for the movie has the headline “Life Can Never Cage a Man Like This!“, a pretty good description of Burns’ impetuous and untamable spirit. Burns is a Korean War vet who makes a living as an itinerant ranch hand, with no interest in conforming to modern society. While traveling through New Mexico, he learns that a friend has been jailed for aiding illegal immigrants. He impulsively sets out to break the friend out of jail, resulting in an escalating series of events that culminates in Burns and his horse being pursued by a Sherriff (Walter Matthau) and his lawmen into the Sandia mountains. The conflict between the protagonist and the law, and the harrowing chase scenes, reminded me to a degree of Stallone’s First Blood. This is definitely a must-see film for fans of Kirk Douglas, of Westerns and of anti-establishment films. It is considered to be director David Miller’s best work; his other notable films were the noir thriller Sudden Fear, the John Wayne war film Flying Tigers and Love Happy, the Marx Brothers’ last film.

Kirk Douglas, in dramatic shot showcasing his conflict with the modern world, in the neo-Western, *Lonely Are the Brave* (1962).

For reference, here are the links to films #1-10, #11-20 and #21-30 in my Criterion Channel journey. Next up, #41-50, which I watched in late Oct/early Nov 2021.