The Benja-man Is Verbose

Helloween fans don't usually like to talk much about the stuff that happened between the band hitting their commercial peak with Keeper Of The Seven Keys, Part II  in 1988, and said band recruiting Andi Deris and releasing Master Of The Rings  in 1994.  The narrative says that Kai left the band, a bunch of contractual things kept them from putting out another record for a few years, there was a lot of infighting that led to disjointed music, and then after some music that we don't talk about Weiki and Markus had to basically reload and try again.     It's finally time for me to draw my own conclusions about this period.  And when I say "this period," I basically mean a certain record released in 1993.  Because the narrative further says that although the alleged decline started with Pink Bubbles Go Ape , that one, especially in retrospect, really wouldn't have done much damage had it not paved the way for Chameleon .  It's really  Chamel...

(Slightly edited project premise copied from the '70s post .) Shortly after I decided to start my explorations of power metal  and had started blogging about power metal, after months of wishing there were a conveniently explained "starter pack" of bands or records to check out, I came across a list at metalstorm.com  created by writer "ScreamingSteelUS," that I've been low-key obsessed with ever since.  A collection of power metal records that uses a very big-tent definition of the subgenre for maximum diversity?  Sounds like what I wanted.  Kept to a convenient number - ten per decade - in perfect chronological order?  I feel seen.  With explanations as to what exactly each record represents and what aspects of PM it can highlight?  Yes, please.   Sure, one can critique.  With the biggest critique being that it's just one guy's list and is prone to the quirks inherent to that.  Of note, ScreamingSteelUS...

  4:  "If You Start Again, It Will Be As Though You'd Never Stopped" Lanegan doesn't really go into the reasons why he refuses to tour or do any promotion for  The Winding Sheet .  I already mentioned that he seems to just be one of those people who'll be constantly conflicted about his own work.  Sure enough, he'd "done my own record, written all the words and the bulk of the music myself... Although I felt the songs weren't great , they were a true representation of myself and had some personal meaning" [emphasis mine].  That turns the narrative back to Screaming Trees, which he's decided is still his main gig, and his ongoing attempts to make that into something that he can be proud of.   We actually get an extended discussion of the making of the Trees' major-label debut,  Uncle Anesthesia .  This part has both some of the more enjoyable writing in the book so far, in which he talks about how much he enjoyed working with producer Terr...

The "Mark Lanegan Band," such that it is, at this point includes: Mike Johnson (guitar), Jack Endino (bass), Mark Pickerel (drums), Steve Fisk (keys) With guest appearances from:   Kurt Cobain; Krist Novoselic; Justin Williams Although we're multiple records into this writing project now,  The Winding Sheet  is really the first chance to hear Lanegan's voice as an artist, in the way I wanted to blog about.  These are his songs, his lyrics, his vocal melodies.  So, what does it sound like? Track One:  "Mockingbirds" This one embodies everything that could be great about this project.  Whether it's Lanegan or Mike Johnson who came up with it, that is one haunting chord that backs the main verse and an equally haunting counterpoint for the piano bridge.  That in turn lets Lanegan go deep and resonant to carry the track.  Two and a half minutes, and done.  So, we're definitely starting strong.  Most gorgeous melody on the record. L...

A Sultan's Ransom  is kind of a tale of two records.  Or at least, Cloven Hoof sound like they're being pulled in a few different directions whilst they try to provide a variety plate of '80s metal. One version of this post would have fervently wished that the whole record sounded like "Astral Rider," although I won't go quite that far given how the other songs grew on me.  Still, "Astral Rider" is something special and goes to heights above and beyond the rest of the record.  On this track they demonstrate that having killer basic song components don't keep one from throwing in other elements to keep things interesting.  We've covered some great bands from this era who usually stop once they have a riff, maybe a big prechorus to offset what's about to come, and a big chorus (and musicians with the chops to pull off the solo).  "Astral Rider" already has those things, and didn't inherently "need" to repeat the titl...

Remember how in my last post about  A Pleasant Shade Of Gray  I noted being frustrated by the lack of forward momentum, the way I'd want in a concept album?  And I hinted that I'd have a longer discussion about the contrast between proper rock operas that talk in complete sentences, have characters, versus this record offering basically a series of samey poems about rumination?  I was going to quote some typical lyrics, like: Stare from the darkness Hear the silence call Devise divisions; * delay decisions Watch the hours crawl Let nothing bleed into nothing, and do nothing Let nothing bleed into nothing, and do nothing at all And follow up with a pithy comment like "do nothing, indeed." Well, you can go ahead and forget about all that.  My stance now is that in its way,  Pleasant Shade  is absolutely an epic, on equal footing with whatever your other favorite prog-rock/metal records are serving up. Prog being prog, it was around listen #4 or #5 tha...

After just a few listens, my categorization of a record isn't going to be crystallized, and I may or may not know how much I like it  - that's kinda the whole point of these "early impressions" posts.  Those posts in which I'm uncertain what I'm hearing aren't all the same.  Sometimes you get something as entertaining (to me, anyway) as that time I came into a Wuthering Heights record without context and just had no idea how to even process what I was hearing.  Other times, it's more that I have some broad impressions but I can't say exactly why.  Main impressions of  A Sultan's Ransom  - I like it, and it seems somehow unusual. The part about liking it is pretty easy to explain - it's good solid metal.  Lively energetic songs, good vocal performance from Russ North, numerous hooks that I'm pretty certain are going to grow on me big time.  Boom, that's my early impression.  This'll be a short post! But not quite that short.  ...