Them : "Sweet Hallow"

These guys used to be a King Diamond tribute band that was formed by former Coldsteel vocalist Troy Norr, who employs his multi tracked falsetto. But unlike King Diamond when it comes to a mid range singing voice he goes into a cheesy power-metal like voice and can't nail the more pained croon King does. If you are going to rip off King Diamond then you gotta go all the way. Musically it's heavier, though there are some "Conspiracy" like break downs. "Down the Road to Misery" is not as interesting and  more straight forward , but not as heavy as the first song. Norr has assembled a pretty stellar cast with the bassist from Symphony X and Kevin Talley sitting behind the drum kit. Members of Lanfear man the keys and guitars.

He sings in his more dramatic power metal mid range for the bulk of "Ghost in the Graveyard". Like King Diamond, they are trying to weave this all into into a concept album. He does alternate between the higher falsettos and the lower demon voices. "the Quiet Room" works more with the story creating a darker musical like atmosphere. Mood wise they come closer to capturing the feel of King Diamond's solo work on "Dead of Night" , but when Norr is in his normal singing voice he loses it and it really needs to be darker with less off a arena rock sound coming from the guitars and more diminished runs. They lose the King Diamond feel on "CarnEvil" even though Norr comes closer to getting King's pained crooned. This feels more like something Psychotic Waltz would have done or older Kamelot. The spoke word dialogue inserted into to song are pretty terrible and the music should do all the talking.

"the Crimson Corpse" finds them getting heavier again. It sounds like the King Diamond parts in this song are being forced at the sake of sacrificing what could be an otherwise decent song. The first listen to the song "Blood From Blood" breezed by me so I had to give it another shot. It is more of a thrash affair. The more thrashing styled attack doesn't let up on "the Harrowing Path to Hollow" which strikes me as having more in-common with Flotsam and Jetsam. I'll give this album a 7.5, for my money it needs to be darker and less of the refined power-metal brand of cheese.It is however a helluva lot more metal than Ghost's King Diamond tribute.

Symphony X : "Underworld" Review & Lyric Videos

While I grew up on classic metal like Priest, Dio and my favorite metal band Iron Maiden I am pretty picky when it comes to power metal. Kamelot is pretty much my mainstay, though I really loved 2007's "Paradise Lost" in the past eight years my taste in metal has shifted more towards black metal and doom so even their heavier moments don't make me bat an eye.Is it me or does Russell Allen sound more like James Labrie on the opener? Its your typical busy groove that they race along with a little more thrash to them than Dream Theater, but not by much on this one. They pull out a bigger synth heavy sound to the chugging title track.

Right off the bat I like this one better than "Nevermore". Russell sounds more like himself on this one. The riff after he says "Demons and death" is a must head bang to. Drummer Jason Rullo is really getting it done on this one. In bridge Russell soars high like Coverdale era Deep Purple. If you are into progressive metal of this ilk then the interplay of the keyboards with the guitar solo will give you wood. With a song title "Without You" you know there is going to be a power ballad coming. This is not untrue however its more upbeat, with a spry strum leading into your typical power metal chorus. While in some ways this is color by numbers, they color in those numbers well and its hard to fault them for pulling it off so well. The song flips into rock from bridge to bridge, verse to verse. The chorus hooks you in by the second time they hit it and I'm somewhat embarrassed to say sells me on it. This might be because over the past year I have given Deep Purple's Coverdale years more of a shot.
They get back to heavy on "Kiss of Fire" which has a similar punch to the golden Barlow years of Iced Earth. While it does rock it's not bringing anything new to the table. If this was any of the bands playing at Progpower this year, then this might be acceptable , but the bar is raised a little higher for these guys. Micheal Romeo is still shredding, but do you expect for him to play any other way now? "Charon" is another straight ahead metal anthem that weighs in on the metal around the same cruiser weight as Kamelot, so much so that Allen's melody reminds me of something Roy Khan would have done. Then they back off into Journey territory on "To Hell and Back" which finds the synths overtaking the guitar. Allen's vocals go towards Whitesnake's more radio dominate days. He sounds great but these synths aren't doing much for me as they are brightening things when they should darkening them. This is one of Romeo's better solos, so if that sort of thing turns you on...then take note that he rips into not one but two of them on this one. The second seems like it is way up in the mix.
"In My Darkest Hour" is not a cover of the Megadeth song. It's slower bass driven song that would be heavy as fuck if this was Dream Theater, but since it's not you might wanna have some fries with the cheese. After the solo it's evident that anyone who is really ranting about this album is going to be a guitar player. Romeo does take his place next to all the metal shredding heavy weights here.They take of on a speedier Dream Theater rock n roll path on " Run With the Devil". For what it is the bridge has a decent groove, but the chorus is pretty 80s arena rock. The epic quality of the power ballad "Swansong" will make you want to grab you twenty sided dice and ride into ballad. The bass player is the only one not cock rocking it out here. To Allen's credit he is doing an admirable job carrying on his wayward son. He would of doing be a good replace for Coverdale in a Whitesnake reunion. One issue that does need to be addressed is the fact the lyrics on this album are like something a high school kid who listened to much Kansas might write.Romeo saves the day with his solo, which is tasteful yet shreds your face off. I'm not normally impressed by that sort of thing any more as I have long out grown Yngwie. They take the album out on a prog note rather than power metal on "Legend". I think this side of them is their better half. When the bass player moves up in the mix they are also going in a better direction. It's like heavier Deep Purple which I am fine with. I'll give this album an 8, if you are a fan of some of the cheese sprinkled over this then you might round it up.

https://www.facebook.com/abysmalhymns

Iconoclast vs Dedicated to Chaos

Two new albums from supposed leaders in the genre of progressive metal, and to be honest both are little bit of a let down. Granted in this debate there is going to be a slight bias as i am a huge Queensryche fan however there most recent effort , though the term should be use loosely as to the amount of effort put into the song writing seems slim, so i could argue that i am going be harsher on the Ryche as i expect more from them. Symphony has the bar held pretty high you would think after paradise lost and if we put these two albums head to head on a metal forum board , the edge would go to them because it is heavier and an actual metal album where it would be harder to label Queensryche's new as metal. Though it's not a wimpy as i was lead to believe by the rather Foreigner sounding single.
I can say both Allen and Tate both sound less than inspired in the vocal delivery, though Allen' gruffer tone allows him to get away with it . His higher register stalls out never soaring as it's capable and Tate never really gets off the ground from a croon. So lets hear from the prosecution who lays the same charge against both bands , to be so -called progressive both albums feel like a regression , neither break's ground i would call progress or moving their sound forward. in some ways i question the economy coming into play on this , do they feel if they don't take a middle of the road approach they are going to shake the boat ? Granted Symphony x is winning out here as along as they stay heavy a certain metal head fan base is going to stick by that . But i have had a problem listening to this album because all the songs sound the same , and even though it's heavier it's boring song writing , the only progressive elements are the solo sections, so you have keyboard solos to go along with your guitar solos , i guess this is all it takes to be prog these days, some one should call up Robert Fripp and let him know. They had chops on paradise lost so i know it's possible for these guys to be more engaging , but it really sounds like Russell singing Nevermore Karaoke. As many times as i have tried to get into this album, the sogs run together and become a blah .
Quneesryche 's lyrical content is as bad as the new morbid angel's, though served with a plentiful side of cheese , i like the american soldier album , not their most crowning achievement even the cover album had it's moments nd the lyrics on the new symphony x are nothing to write home about either . to be honset this isn't the first time the ryche has wimped out , do you remember an album called Empire ? i think the difference here is the execution in song writing, you can't say the same level of pink floyd plagiarism, there is a riff holding some similarities to fame by david bowie, and at times comes across like robert palmer's rip tide album for reasons i can't place, after listening to the album , i recall there were six songs i thought i could pass for queensryche , though none of the songs are what i would think of as classics ryche in the least .but those six songs are listenable , the more commercial stabs solicited as singles are plain terrible, wot we do and some other power balled i tried to forgot . the chorus' on iconoclast are only slightly less cheesy, while in the minds of a large percent of metal heads can be sold on heavy alone i think iconoclst might slight in that regard , i guess i have until october to see if dedicated to chaos has grown on me, it didn't make the cut to deserve a download onto my ipod so that is a shaky proposition - fans of bland nevermore ish stuff will dig it and continue to swell there popularity with the mall crowd.
in wrestling it would be called a double dis qualification both bands were counted out of the ring for boring me