Tag: Mastodon

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.

Favourite rock/metal concept albums (Part 10) – 5 albums by Mastodon


This is the tenth in an on-going series of posts covering my favourite rock and metal concept albums. In December, I reviewed Steve Hackett’s 1975 classic Voyage of the Acolyte, and I now turn to Atlanta-based quartet Mastodon, who have released a number of concept albums over the years. The band came to my attention when their song, Colony of Birchmen, was nominated for Best Metal Performance in the 2007 GRAMMY Awards. Since then, they have gone from strength to strength, garnering ever-increasing critical acclaim (6 GRAMMY nominations, including 1 win) and commercial success.

Mastodon in 2020 (from left): Bill Kelliher (rhythm guitar), Troy Sanders (bass/vocals), Brent Hinds (lead guitar/vocals), Brann Dailor (drums/vocals)

Band: Mastodon

Themes/concepts: Mastodon’s first four studio albums were each linked to the four elements of Fire, Water, Earth and Aether (celebrated in classical literature as the fifth element, or the quintessence, which fills up the spaces in the universe). Each album’s cover features a symbol above the band’s name, representing the element. After skipping the concept approach for their next two releases, Mastodon returned to the format with Emperor of Sand in 2017, with a theme built around the experience of fighting cancer.

Album: Remission (2002)

Best songs: Ol’e Nessie, Mother Puncher, Elephant Man

Narrative genre: No common story element across songs

Remission is considered the loosest of Mastodon’s concept albums, with the only unifying element (pardon the pun) being the theme of Fire. I listened to this album only after having experienced the progressively increasing sophistication of their subsequent efforts, so it feels a bit raw to my ears. This is Mastodon’s signature musical template – Bill Kelliher’s rhythm guitar riffs, Brann Dailor’s drum fills, Brent Hinds’ and Troy Sanders’ growled vocal deliveries, all of which combine to create a wall-to-wall carpet of sludge metal. Tracks like Ol’e Nessie, Trainwreck and Mother Puncher have intricate instrumental intros that go on for 1-2 minutes, before the vocals kick in. The instrumental Elephant Man is my favourite track of the album, and reminiscent of Metallica’s Orion in terms of pacing and cadence.

Album: Leviathan (2004)

Best songs: Blood and Thunder, Iron Tusk, Hearts Alive

Narrative genre: Literary fiction (Moby Dick)

Mastodon’s second album showed that they were not a flash in the pan. Leviathan is loosely based on the novel, Moby Dick (link to the element Water), and features more variation in the singing and guitar work, compared to Remission. The first track, Blood and Thunder, opens with some killer riffs and ends up being a genuine 80’s style thrash metal head-banger, as it settles into the chorus of “white whale, holy grail”. Iron Tusk is a fast-charging song that lights up in the middle with a catchy guitar hook, that sadly appears only once. The album caps off with a 13-minute epic, Hearts Alive, which describes the sinking of the ship by the whale…Brann Dailor’s drumming is spare, creating space for vocals dripping with the anguish of drowned men and guitar riffs building up to a crescendo of doom.

Album: Blood Mountain (2006)

Best songs: Sleeping Giant, Colony of Birchmen, This Mortal Soil, Siberian Divide, Pendulous Skin

Narrative genre: Speculative fiction

With their third album, Mastodon’s music moved away from pure sludge/thrash metal to a more sophisticated sound, incorporating cleaner vocals, slower drumming and more intricate guitar work, reminiscent of Metallica’s musical evolution from the Ride the Lightning to Master of Puppets. The album tells the story of a protagonist, who has to find a crystal skull and take it to the top of Blood Mountain (link to the element Earth); along the way, he awakens the mountain (Sleeping Giant), walks past a river of blood (Capillarian Crest), encounters various creatures, including a one-eyed Sasquatch (Circle of Cysquatch), a race of tree-men (Colony of Birchmen) and flying demons (Hunters of the Sky). The entire adventure is an allegory for the human condition and its associated struggles. The album yielded the group’s first Grammy nomination, for Colony of Birchmen (the title is an homage to the 1974 Genesis song The Colony of Slippermen). The guitar solo on the final track, Pendulous Skin, could have come off an early 70’s rock album, and This Mortal Soil is fast becoming one of my all-time Mastodon favourites.

Album: Crack the Skye (2009)

Best songs: Divinations, The Last Baron

Narrative genre: Science fiction

This album’s name is a tribute to Skye Dailor, Brann Dailor’s younger sister, who committed suicide when they were both teenagers. While this is a noble and sobering aspect of the album, the story itself is pretty abstract, and if there is a connection to real life, it remains in the minds of the musicians. In fact, you have to wonder what they were smoking when they put it together, here’s the synopsis – a crippled man travels into space (link to the element Aether), gets too close to the sun and ends up being sucked into a wormhole, landing up in the spirit realm; the spirits put him into Rasputin’s body, who is murdered as he tries to usurp the Tsar’s throne; this results in both Rasputin’s and the space traveler’s souls flying through a crack in the sky, after which Rasputin tries to help the man’s soul find its way back into his body. In spite of the fantastical premise which is right up my street, I haven’t warmed up to the album in the way many critics have. There are just two songs that appealed to me, Divinations and the extraordinary 13-minute-long dreamlike The Last Baron.

Album: Emperor of Sand (2017)

Best songs: Steambreather, Ancient Kingdom, Clandestiny, Jaguar God

Narrative genre: Tragedy

Mastodon returned to the concept album format in 2017, using the allegory of a wanderer who is cursed by a Sultan (aka Death) to a lifetime journey through the desert, to describe the never-ending battle with cancer. The album was a form of catharsis for multiple band members whose friends and family members had been fighting the disease. Most of the songs represent the thoughts and feelings of the Wanderer, as he deals with the pain, exhaustion and hopelessness of his plight. Emperor of Sand received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Rock Album (yes, the band’s sound now varied to the point they were not considered an always-on metal band), and the opening track Sultan’s Curse won the GRAMMY for Best Metal Performance (although it’s not one of my preferred tracks). The album closes with the poignant 8-minute-long Jaguar God, with the opening section bringing to mind some of Metallica’s ballads.

Mastodon’s latest release is the double album (not a concept album) Hushed and Grim, which is perhaps the best work in their twenty-year career. They are truly a brand that has improved with every release, staying true to their core sound, but constantly developing their song writing, instrumentation and vocal delivery.

Milestones on a personal journey through rock and metal: Part 4


This is the concluding part of a 4-post series of recollections and reflections about the albums that triggered my interest and in most cases, love for a specific sub-genre of hard rock or heavy metal. The inspiration to write these was the untimely death of beloved rock drummer Neil Peart of the prog rock band Rush earlier this month. These posts are effectively a chronological walk down memory lane.

In Part 1, I talked about how Def Leppard’s Hysteria started it all off for me in 1987 by introducing me to what I referred to as ‘modern’ or ‘contemporary’ hard rock, but was effectively the beginning of ‘hair’ metal. I also covered Jethro Tull’s Aqualung and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid albums.

In Part 2, I moved on to 1988 and Motley Crue’s Girls, Girls, Girls album introducing me to ‘hair’ metal as it was beginning to explode across the world. Thereafter, I got into the ‘real deal’, with Metallica’s seminal thrash metal album …And Justice For All; seminal because they realized (as Black Sabbath had more than a decade earlier) that slowing down the pace could actually make the music heavier. And finally there was Rush’s Power Windows which opened up progressive rock for me.

In Part 3, listening to Iron Maiden’s Powerslave opened up their back catalog and exposure to bands that formed the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). By now I had reached the start of the 90’s and the grunge/alt rock wave, which for me was defined by Pearl Jam’s Ten. And finally I started delving into the world of guitar virtuosos via Steve Vai’s Passion and Warfare.

I pick up the story now many years later in the mid-2000s, and I myself am amazed as I write this that for a period of 10 years I didn’t discover or explore any new sub-genres of rock or metal. Part of this is because I sat out the entire grunge/alternative rock wave through the latter half of the 90s and partly it was because I was so caught up with work that I didn’t have the time or the energy to do much else. All this changed when I moved to Vietnam in late 2006 and found myself with a lot more quality time at the end of the day. And literally in the space of a few weeks of arrival, I was browsing local music stores and picking up new CDs to listen to. Many of these were outside of the metal genre so I won’t list them here, but there were two albums that I listened to that opened up a whole new discography for me which remains a big part of my listening repertoire to this day.

Dream Theater’s Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, released January 2002

2006, introduction to progressive metal via Dream Theater’s 2002 album, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence: I was well aware of Dream Theater since the early 90s as a group that was similar to Rush in terms of musicianship and overall sound. I had listened to a few songs from their 1994 album Awake while visiting a friend’s house but wasn’t really able to pay attention in the middle of all our chatter and never revisited the group…it didn’t help that Dream Theater albums were not stocked by any Indian record stores that I visited. This double-disc concept album filled with themes about mental health however, was a revelation! As had been the case with Metallica and Rush, I felt like the ground was shifting beneath my feet. I just played this album again and again over the next few days and weeks. Every track is perfection in terms of lyrics, James LaBrie’s vocals, the musicianship and production values. Clearly what had evolved since the early albums like Awake was the melodic structure…many of these were songs would sound good even if they were performed unplugged. Particularly About to Crash and Solitary Shell on Disc 2 ranks alongside Metallica’s Fade to Black from their Ride the Lightning album as my favourite ‘anguish’ songs. A few weeks later, I found a copy of their preceding release from 1999, also a concept album called Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory and was blown away all over again. This album narrates the story of a man who has been put into a hypnotic trance to unlock what he believes are memories from a past life. The songs piece together his recollections and effectively unravel a murder mystery. Amazing concept, but more importantly, the songs are genuinely great standalone rock tracks. It was a ‘dream’ come true for me to see them live in concert in 2017 as part of their world tour to commemorate the 25th anniversary of their album Images and Words. I guess I’ll have to wait till 2024 for a Scenes from a Memory 25th anniversary tour!

These two albums also led me to reflect on three other amazing concept albums – Rush’s 2112 Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime and Extreme’s 1992 album III Sides to Every Story. Dream Theater also led me to look for other prog metal bands and now with the full power of Google Search available to me, I was able to read about and listen to bands like Symphony X, Opeth and Fates Warning as well as the supergroups featuring various members of Dream Theater – Transatlantic, Liquid Tension Experiment and Office of Strategic Influence. As with the virtuoso guitarists, my issue with some of these groups is that while the music could be appreciated for its intricacy and complexity, it didn’t really come together in the form of enjoyable songs. But all the albums from the three supergroups featuring Dream Theater members contain some really good songs.

Coheed and Cambria’s Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow released October 2007

In late 2007, while browsing metacritic.com and looking for new hard rock/heavy metal albums, I saw favourable reviews of a band I had never heard of – Coheed and Cambria, specifically their new release Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow, which apparently was the sequel to their 2005 album Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness. I’m a sucker for album titles like these and the fact that they were concept albums. I found a music video for a song called The Suffering on YouTube (still a relatively new concept at that time) and I loved the sound. It took me a while but by 2009 I had accessed their entire back catalogue and had fallen in love all over again. The group was like a metal version of Rush and the scope of their albums if anything, were even more ambitious than that of Dream Theater’s. In fact, 8 of the 9 albums they have released since they began in 2002, are concept albums and together, they form a single epic narrative that is tied to a series of sci-fi/space opera graphic novels that are written and published by brand frontman Claudio Sanchez through his own publishing company Evil Ink Comics. The lyrics are sometimes disturbingly violent, but the music and vocal package is astonishing in terms of how it triggers something primal in the brain. I don’t necessarily have a favourite album, but there are typically 4-5 songs from each album that I could easily play at any time on a playlist and because I approach their music that way, I have to admit that I can’t necessarily remember which song is from which album, in the way that I can for Rush or Metallica. I did a real fanboy thing in 2010, attending a C&C concert in Kuala Lumpur on a Sunday night, then flying to Singapore the next day and attending a Slash concert in Singapore where C&C were the supporting act.

Mastodon’s Blood Mountain released September 2006

2007, introduction to sludge metal via Mastodon’s 2006 album, Blood Mountain: Every year, I read through the Grammy nominees for Best Hard Rock and Best Metal looking for new bands or albums that I can listen to. In the 2007 nominations I came across a new name, Mastodon nominated for the song Colony of Birchmen. Checking back on Metacritic, I saw that the album this track came from, Blood Mountain, had a very high score of 82. It took me a while, but eventually I was able to get hold of the album, and this introduced me to a new sound, that of sludge metal. The underlying musical structure of these songs was very close to that of classic hard rock/thrash metal, but it was delivered with the vocal growl and fast-paced drumming of doom metal and the distorted guitar sound from grunge. Sludge metal as a genre has evolved to encompass a wide range of styles, but Mastodon sits on the progressive metal side of the spectrum, with most albums revolving around a specific theme or concept, which is what makes their music appealing to me. I soon got hold of their preceding album Leviathan, a concept album loosely based on the Moby Dick story, which also had some great songs like Blood and Thunder and the epic 13 minute track Hearts Alive. I have kept track of this band ever since and their music just keep getting more sophisticated as they explore variations in style and composition. Every album has stand out tracks – Oblivion from 2009’s Crack the Skye, the delightful Octopus Has no Friends and poignant Creature Lives from 2011’s The Hunter, the title track from 2014’s Once More ‘Round the Sun. I haven’t really spent enough time listening to their last album, Emperor of Sand from 2017.

I’ve found a couple of other sludge metal that consistently produces a similar quality of work. One is Baroness, whose music also sits at the progressive end of sludge metal. Baroness has interestingly named their albums Red Album, Blue Record, Yellow & Green, Purple and Gold & Grey. All the albums feature amazing cover art created by lead vocalist John Dyer Baizley. My favourite songs are Shock Me from Purple and the epic Rays on Pinion from Red Album. The other band is Kylesa, but I’ve only listened to one of their albums, Ultraviolet (2013). I hadn’t realized it until I wrote this post, but all three of these sludge metal groups are based in Georgia, USA (one in Savannah and one in Atlanta).

And so, I come to conclusion of this series of posts, which started off with me making the leap from pop to classic/contemporary hard rock in the late 80s and has me more than 30 years later listening to a very wide range of rock and metal from the 60s to the 2010s. While this genre no longer enjoys the kind of mainstream popularity it did in the early 70s and again in the mid- to late 80s, it’s cool that all the sub-genres are alive and well, constantly evolving and still producing songs that showcase incredible musical compositions, outstanding technical prowess and stimulating songwriting. Some of the fun and thrill of discovering bands and hunting down their albums has disappeared in this era of instant access and portable music. Perhaps because of that I am less focused when I sit down to listen to a new album, because it was so easy to get hold off and I have a feeling that I can always listen to it at any time. Perhaps if I listen to new music as attentively as I used to, I will continue to discover other albums that will create the kind of seismic shifts that Rush, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater and Coheed & Cambria did for me in the past.

Top 10 albums: 2001-2010


Three years ago, I wrote this Top 10 album list for the period 2001 to 2010. Somehow I never posted it and have just re-discovered it. All Top 10 lists are bound to fail, because no one will ever agree with the list and the person who writes it will inevitably have second thoughts soon after finishing the list. Fortunately, when I read through it today, I am happy to say that I still largely agree with it. I noted with interest that all the albums are from before 2006. I don’t seem to have discovered any new albums that I really love between 2006 and 2010. I have a few favourites since 2010, but that’s for another list, isn’t it? So, here we go:-

Sufjan Stevens: Illinois, aka Come on feel the Illinoise (2005)

This was perhaps the most highly acclaimed album of 2005. Released on Stevens’ own Asthmatic Kitty label (his stepfather housed a stray cat named Sara which suffered from asthma), it is an incredible achievement by the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter. His music in general reflects his strong spiritual beliefs and this album in particular sparkles with the bright sounds of trumpets, strings and choir vocals. The most well-known single from the album is ‘Chicago’, which is his signature song and was featured in the film Little Miss Sunshine. Other standout tracks include ‘Jacksonville’, ‘The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts’ and ‘Come On! Feel the Illinoise!’.

Dream Theater: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002)

I had heard great things of prog-rockers Dream Theater since the early ‘90’s, but somehow had never got my hands on one of their albums until late 2006. And the album I picked up turned out to be this 2-CD epic, which in my opinion is their best album ever. It is a ‘concept album’, thematically strung together around various forms of ‘personal turbulence’, such as alcoholism, mental illness and so on. The stand out song is the multi-part title track which occupies the entire 2nd disc, with my favourite segments being ‘About to Crash’ and ‘Solitary Shell’. ‘Misunderstood’ is the other great track which appears on the 1st disc. It is difficult to describe what is so good about this album…it’s just the entire package, from the lyrics, the storytelling, the vocals and of course, the incredible musicianship of guitarist John Petrucci, drummer Mike Portnoy and keyboardist Jordan Rudess. If you can find the concert DVD, it is definitely worth picking up too. Their other concept album, Scenes from a Memory comes a close second.

The Decemberists: The Crane Wife (2006)

This album represents all that I love about ‘indie bands’. The focus is on songwriting and musicianship. There is no commercial angle at all, I haven’t even seen a music video of any of the songs, nor do I know what the artists look like. This is not eye candy masquerading as music, but musicians working together for the love of their craft. Nevertheless, the music is very accessible and the songs are catchy and infectious; particularly ‘Yankee Bayonet’, ‘O Valencia’ and ‘The Perfect Crime’. The title track is based on a Japanese folk tale, which many of us have probably come across in children’s books. The variety of instruments used on this album is mind-boggling. For example, guitarist Chris Funk also plays the bouzouki, the dulcimer, the banjo and the hurdy-gurdy. Together they give the music a lush, layered feel that goes very well with Meloy’s somewhat melancholic vocals.

Mastodon: Blood Mountain (2006)

Since the mid-90’s, I have been desperately searching for the next big metal band after Metallica, but to no avail. Then, in 2006 I started reading rave reviews about Mastodon’s 3rd album Blood Mountain and soon after, one of its tracks ‘Colony of Birchmen’ was nominated for a Grammy. At that time, the band was classified as a sludge metal outfit, based on the slightly muddied/ distorted sound of their earlier releases Remission (2002) and Leviathan (2004), but they went with a cleaner sound in Blood Mountain. This is a concept album with a fantasy storyline, revolving around a person trying to get hold of a Crystal Skull and climbing the Blood Mountain with it. Today, after two more outstanding albums Crack the Skye (2009) and The Hunter (2011), I like to think that they are the most inventive and melodic metal band in the world…reaching out well beyond narrow categorizations like sludge or stoner metal.

Kate Bush: Aerial (2005)

Sometime in the mid-‘80’s, I tuned in to a series on BBC World Service, which told the story behind classic albums of the past 20 years. One of the albums covered was Kate Bush’s 1978 debut, The Kick Inside. I was completely bowled over by the unique sound of songs like ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘Them Heavy People’. It was not until a visit to London in 2004 that I actually purchased a copy of the CD, but during all those years in between, her output was sporadic and I wondered if she ever would scale the heights of her debut work. The answer came in 2005 with this double album, the 2 discs subtitled A Sea of Honey and A Sky of Honey. And what a return to form it was! Compared to the soaring vocals and theatrics of The Kick Inside, the sound of Aerial is mellow and thoughtful.  I would recommend listening to this album with a pair of headphones on and no one to disturb you. It’s a truly rewarding, almost emotional experience. A bit of trivia…Australian entertainer Rolf Harris (of ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport’ fame) provides guest vocals and plays the didgeridoo on two of my favourite songs, ‘An Architect’s Dream’, ‘The Painter’s Link’. Not such a great association anymore given the recent court case about his sexual attacks on minors.

Coheed and Cambria: Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness (2005)

In much the same way that Mastodon answered my search for the next great metal band after Metallica, Coheed and Cambria answered my search for the next great prog rock band after Rush. The similarity in sound between C&C and Rush is uncanny, although they claim they had not even listened to Rush until well into their career. The album with the long name listed here contained some of their most commercially accessible songs up to this stage of their career…songs such as ‘Wake Up’, ‘The Suffering’ and ‘Welcome Home’. As with all their albums till date (they just released Afterman: Ascension a few weeks ago), the songs deal with the characters and storylines of the scifi graphic novel series The Amory Wars, written by C&C leader Claudio Sanchez.

System of a Down: Toxicity (2001)

SOAD were perhaps the most inventive, innovative rock/ metal band since Metallica. No doubt, their unique sound came from their ability to blend music from their Armenian roots with the classic heavy metal sound. In particular, their 2nd album Toxicity became famous for its signature rapid fire vocals from Serj Tankian and for its politically charged lyrics, especially in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. The stand out songs from this album include ‘Science’, ‘Deer Dance’ and of course, the famous ‘Chop Suey!’. What a pity this group folded up a few years ago.

Coheed and Cambria: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (2003)

My 2nd C&C album in the top 10 is their 2nd studio album. I discovered all the C&C albums at around the same time and to be honest, it is quite difficult for me to rank them in order of preference, because I like so many songs from each of the albums. Given a choice, I would have probably put their first 4 albums into this Top 10, as they were all released during the last decade. This title track from this album is perhaps their signature song and I was lucky enough to hear them perform this live at KL Live, where they were the main act in July 2010 and then again in Singapore the very next day, where they opened for Slash. It was an emotional experience when the small but fervently loyal crowd at KL Live went wild as the opening guitar lines played out and roared “Man your own jackhammer, man your battle stations” during the chorus. The album is filled with other great songs such as ‘Blood Red Summer’, ‘A Favor House Atlantic’ and ‘Cuts Marked in the March of Men’.

Daft Punk: Discovery (2001)

Sometime in early-2001, I switched on MTV and saw a really cool looking video in ‘80’s-scifi-anime-style featuring a blue-skinned pop group, spaceships and a futuristic city. The vocals were altered using Auto-Tune which had become popular after Cher used it for her hit single ‘Believe’ a couple of years earlier. The song was ‘One More Time’ and was the breakout mainstream hit for French duo Daft Punk; the album Discovery went on to become a global phenomenon, featuring other great tracks such as ‘Digital Love’, ‘Harder Better Faster Stronger’ and ‘Aerodynamic’. The music videos for these songs were all part of a feature-length animation film titled Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem which was released a couple of years later. Actually, their album from last year, Random Access Memories is good enough to displace this album from the list, but Discovery came first!

Incubus: A Crow Left of Murder (2004)

This album was my introduction to Incubus. Although their previous album Morning View sold more copies, I prefer A Crow Left of Murder of all their releases. Brandon Boyd’s pleasing vocals blend well with their uncomplicated pop-rock sound, particularly on songs like ‘Agoraphobia’, ‘Talk Shows on Mute’ and ‘Southern Girl’. Their follow-up album Light Grenades (2006) was a close contender to get into this Top 10 as well, particularly since ‘Dig’ is my favourite Incubus song. But this album has much greater depth with 5-6 very radio friendly songs.

 

My Top 10 albums of the past 10 years


This post is about 2 years too late. I should have put this together at the end of 2010, but no matter, better late than never. I had the happy problem of deciding my favourite 10 albums and failed miserably. Instead of 10, I ended up with almost twice the number. So, here I go with my first Top 10 and I will try to post a consolation Top 10 in a few days.

1. Sufjan Stevens: Illinois (2005)
This was perhaps the most highly acclaimed album of 2005. Released on Stevens’ own Asthmatic Kitty label (his stepfather housed a stray cat named Sara which suffered from asthma), it is an incredible achievement by the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter. His music in general reflects his strong spiritual beliefs and this album in particular sparkles with the bright sounds of trumpets, strings and choir vocals. The most well-known single from the album is ‘Chicago’, which is his signature song and was featured in the film Little Miss Sunshine. Other standout tracks include ‘Jacksonville’, ‘The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts’ and ‘Come On! Feel the Illinoise!’.

2. Dream Theater: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002)
I had heard great things of prog-rockers Dream Theater since the early ‘90’s, but somehow had never got my hands on one of their albums until late 2006. And the album I picked up turned out to be this 2-CD epic, which in my opinion is their best album ever. It is a ‘concept album’, thematically strung together around various forms of ‘personal turbulence’, such as alcoholism, mental illness and so on. The stand out song is the multi-part title track which occupies the entire 2nd disc, with my favourite segments being ‘About to Crash’ and ‘Solitary Shell’. ‘Misunderstood’ is the other great track which appears on the 1st disc. It is difficult to describe what is so good about this album…it’s just the entire package, from the lyrics, the storytelling, the vocals and of course, the incredible musicianship of guitarist John Petrucci, drummer Mike Portnoy and keyboardist Jordan Rudess. If you can find the concert DVD, it is definitely worth picking up too.

3. The Decemberists: The Crane Wife (2006)
This album represents all that I love about ‘indie bands’. The focus is on songwriting and musicianship. There is no commercial angle at all, I haven’t even seen a music video of any of the songs, nor do I know what the artists look like. This is not eye candy masquerading as music, but musicians working together for the love of their craft. Nevertheless, the music is very accessible and the songs are catchy and infectious; particularly ‘Yankee Bayonet’, ‘O Valencia’ and ‘The Perfect Crime’. The title track is based on a Japanese folk tale, which many of us have probably come across in children’s folk tale books. The variety of instruments used on this album is mind-boggling. For example, guitarist Chris Funk also plays the bouzouki, the dulcimer, the banjo and the hurdy-gurdy. Together they give the music a lush, layered feel that goes very well with Meloy’s somewhat melancholic vocals.

4. Mastodon: Blood Mountain (2006)
Since the mid-90’s, I have been desperately searching for the next big metal band after Metallica, but to no avail. Then, in 2006 I started reading rave reviews about Mastodon’s 3rd album Blood Mountain and soon after, one of its tracks ‘Colony of Birchmen’ was nominated for a Grammy. At that time, the band was classified as a sludge metal outfit, based on the slightly muddied/ distorted sound of their earlier releases Remission (2002) and Leviathan (2004), but they went with a cleaner sound in Blood Mountain. This is a concept album with a fantasy storyline, revolving around a person trying to get hold of a Crystal Skull and climbing the Blood Mountain with it. Today, after two more outstanding albums Crack the Skye (2009) and The Hunter (2011), I like to think that they are the most inventive and melodic metal band in the world…reaching out well beyond narrow categorizations like sludge or stoner metal.

5. Kate Bush: Aerial (2005)
Sometime in the mid-‘80’s, I tuned in to a series on BBC World Service, which told the story behind classic albums of the past 20 years. One of the albums covered was Kate Bush’s 1978 debut, The Kick Inside. I was completely bowled over by the unique sound of songs like ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘Them Heavy People’. It was not until a visit to London in 2004 that I actually purchased a copy of the CD, but during all those years in between, her output was sporadic and I wondered if she ever would scale the heights of her debut work. The answer came in 2005 with this double album, the 2 discs subtitled A Sea of Honey and A Sky of Honey. And what a return to form it was! Compared to the soaring vocals and theatrics of The Kick Inside, the sound of Aerial is mellow and thoughtful. I would recommend listening to this album with a pair of headphones on and no one to disturb you. It’s a truly rewarding, almost emotional experience. A bit of trivia…Australian entertainer Rolf Harris (of ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport’ fame) provides guest vocals and plays the didgeridoo on two of my favourite songs, ‘An Architect’s Dream’, ‘The Painter’s Link’.

6. Coheed and Cambria: Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness (2005)
In much the same way that Mastodon answered my search for the next great metal band after Metallica, Coheed and Cambria answered my search for the next great prog rock band after Rush. The similarity in sound between C&C and Rush is uncanny, although they claim they had not even listened to Rush until well into their career. The album with the long name listed here contained some of their most commercially accessible songs up to this stage of their career…songs such as ‘Wake Up’, ‘The Suffering’ and ‘Welcome Home’. As with all their albums till date (they just released Afterman: Ascension a few weeks ago), the songs deal with the characters and storylines of the scifi graphic novel series The Amory Wars, written by C&C leader Claudio Sanchez.

7. System of a Down: Toxicity (2001)
SOAD were perhaps the most inventive, innovative rock/ metal band since Metallica. No doubt, their unique sound came from their ability to blend music from their Armenian roots with the classic heavy metal sound. In particular, their 2nd album Toxicity became famous for its signature rapid fire vocals from Serj Tankian and for its politically charged lyrics, especially in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. The stand out songs from this album include ‘Science’, ‘Deer Dance’ and of course, the famous ‘Chop Suey!’. A great pity that they disbanded a few years ago.

8. Coheed And Cambria: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (2003)
My 2nd C&C album in the top 10 is their 2nd studio album. I discovered all the C&C albums at around the same time and to be honest, it is quite difficult for me to rank them in order of preference, because I like so many songs from each of the albums. Given a choice, I would have probably put their first 4 albums into this Top 10, as they were all released during the last decade. The title track from this album is perhaps their signature song and I was lucky enough to hear them perform this live at KL Live, where they were the main act in July 2010 and then again in Singapore the very next day, where they opened for Slash. It was an emotional experience when the small but fervently loyal crowd at KL Live went wild as the opening guitar lines played out and roared “Man your own jackhammer, man your battle stations” during the chorus. The album is filled with other great songs such as ‘Blood Red Summer’, ‘A Favor House Atlantic’ and ‘Cuts Marked in the March of Men’.

9. Daft Punk: Discovery (2001)
Sometime in early-2001, I switched on MTV and saw a really cool looking video in ‘80’s-scifi-anime-style featuring a blue-skinned pop group, spaceships and a futuristic city. The vocals were altered using Auto-Tune which had become popular after Cher used it for her hit single ‘Believe’ a couple of years earlier. The song was ‘One More Time’ and was the breakout mainstream hit for French duo Daft Punk; the album Discovery went on to become a global phenomenon, featuring other great tracks such as ‘Digital Love’, ‘Harder Better Faster Stronger’ and ‘Aerodynamic’. The music videos for these songs were all part of a feature-length animation film titled Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem which was released a couple of years later.

10. Incubus: A Crow Left of Murder (2004)
This album was my introduction to Incubus. Although their previous album Morning View sold more copies, I prefer A Crow Left of Murder of all their releases. Brandon Boyd’s pleasing vocals blend well with their uncomplicated pop-rock sound, particularly on songs like ‘Agoraphobia’, ‘Talk Shows on Mute’ and ‘Southern Girl’. Their follow-up album Light Grenades (2006) was a close contender to get into this Top 10 as well, particularly since ‘Dig’ is my favourite Incubus song. Unfortunately I missed them when they toured KL last summer.