The Benja-man Is Verbose

Past exposure to this band/record:   Zero. I've been looking forward to this one way too much, I think.   I come in ready to open some new horizons with Falconer, since they always pop up as the supposed unique PM band that everyone needs to know about.  Since we finished with Adramelch, I've spent a lot of time basically in the realm of traditional German-style power metal and, well, the last few records I've written about are variations on that theme.  Often interesting variations, to be sure.  We had traditional German PM in the vein of Helloween except in its rawer form with Death Or Glory , except backcrossed with various early-80s forms of metal with Glory To The Brave , except front-crossed with the rest of the rock and metal world with The Dark Ride , * and except with an ensemble cast with The Metal Opera .  Fine, fine.  But, look, I started this writing project wanting vicissitudes.  I wanted to hear some bands pushing at t...

Warren Zevon's career is one of those that had a bunch of "comebacks," "returns to form," etc.  That's what happens when you peak... well, early-ish.  As chronicled, he'd certainly paid his dues and spent a decade bumming around the music business before hitting it big with the self-titled and then  Excitable Boy .  Yet I seriously wanted just now to call them "the first two albums," despite knowing full well that they weren't.  Point is, he hit his commercial and to some artistic peak very soon after people started having heard of him at all, and then within a couple years his career was on the downswing.  And so, like artists who peak early, fans of each record would inevitably hail it as a return to form .   After  The Envoy  flopped,  Sentimental Hygiene  was the first of a series of mini-comebacks.  You've got Zevon newly sober and getting back in touch with his roots, you've got the promising pairing with a little band ca...

Picking up the twin questions of whether The Metal Opera succeeds as a power metal record and as a concept album.  I'm a bit surprised to find that its success with the former is part of the reason I'm more mixed on the latter. So, the songs here are generally good.  A bunch of catchy metal songs is what you need first and foremost to make a top-tier power metal record.  They nailed that part.  One aspect of Tobias's songwriting that I think needs proper mention is the transition game.  If you're going to play with anything resembling a complex song structure, the pieces need to fit together.  Not only does that happen here, but it's often the source of the hooks.  [Chant, instruments drop out] -> "What is going ooooooon?!" -> [drumroll] -> "Reach out for the light... [chugchugchug]."  Together, that adds up to a hook.  There's an innate understanding here of how one piece of a song should set up another.  End what sounds like i...

Past exposure to this band/record : I don't think any. A few years ago I did listen to a then-new symphonic power-prog record with a lot of guest vocalists.  I remember that whatever band put out the record was a legacy act, pretty well respected, and that I was struck by how song after song seemed to have the right elements yet never once grabbed me. What I no longer have even the slightest memory of is the name of that band or that record.  Since the name "Avantasia" probably didn't mean anything to me back then, I can't say that it definitely wasn't them. But, anyway, as far as I know , I've not listened to Avantasia before.   Fun with names :  As best as I can tell, the official name of the band is "Avantasia" rather than "Tobias Sammet's Avantasia," despite what's on the album cover.  While we're at it, it might be worth noting that coming in, I know Tobias Sammet only through reputation.  His work is a big back bo...

If a record for as established an artist as Zevon doesn't even get included except as an "album series" inclusion on one of my streaming services, it's gotta be minor work, right?  And if it flopped hard enough to drive its singer out of the mainstream for what seemed like it'd be forever, it's gotta be really minor work, right?  Well, let's find out. Track One:  "The Envoy" Well, the way the song comes in drowned in synthesizers immediately dates the song and the record that bears its name.  I like what "The Envoy" is going to with its tribute to the kind of superhero diplomat who, well, doesn't usually get his own rock song.  I'm a little torn between wishing the chorus were more than "[verb] the Envoy," and moments when it gets stuck in my head.  I do wish the song weren't so overproduced and... busy.  And I wish it had a third verse instead of the first one again.  Pretty good overall, though.   Tra...

Past exposure to this band/record :  I am already familiar with The Dark Ride .   I sometimes imagine what Helloween listeners thought when after a short intro track, The Dark Ride provides a song called "Mr. Torture."  The track is built around a very down-tuned almost nu-metal riff whilst the singer growls about a theater of pain.  This is Helloween?  And then the chorus gives a gruff soaring melody about... wait, did he say "just pick up your phone?"  Hypothetical listener's eyes and ears open in disbelief, requiring a few minutes' worth of lyrics like "y ou can catch him on his website/ Has a livechat every weeknight" to properly register and process what the song is actually about, and another few minutes to figure out whether they like or hate it.  The band has always had a goofball sense of humor, but the jokes aren't usually twisted in quite this way.  What just happened here? That's not really a realistic narrative, though.  Mayb...

I've been blogging about Eluveitie's particular brand of quirk (and incredibly belatedly learning the band's ma s termind's name) for over a year now.  Reviewing a brand-new record at the same time the rest of the world is processing it can't help but feel a little different.  In theory it should be the same.  I mean, for me it's only been six months or so without new Eluveitie, rather than over five years.  And in theory, none of that should have any bearing on Ànv , whose strengths and weaknesses will be the same five years from now as they are now.  I'll try to review it like any other record. Track One:  "Emerge" ...And out of the darkness emerges a tune, carried by folk instruments first and then guitars hit.  Well, as they do.  Bog-standard intro that does exactly what one expects. Track Two:  "Taranoías" Damn, this song is so close to having me that it's heartbreaking every time.  The way the violin figure from "...