Review: The Black Keys - El Camino

 Probably one of the most major pieces of music released late last year that I never managed to catch, El Camino, the seventh album from blues rock duo The Black Keys has received an overwhelmingly positive response, appearing in best albums of the year lists from Rolling Stone and Kerrang! and doing phenomenally well in album charts. As of late, rock albums that have done well in a charts have not really been something that I've been particularly keen on but thankfully, this time an exception has been provided. When listening to El Camino, it's easy to get behind the massive hype of this album.

 It's a thankful sight to see a group as unique sounding and effortlessly brilliant as The Black Keys make it as successful in a mainstream sense as they have at a time when a lot of major mainstream rock music has, frankly gone to shit and consequently lost much relevance to the general public. Of course such an event of mainstream rock being hit has been perfectly highlighted in a somewhat controversial and truthful statement drummer Patrick Carney told Rolling Stone this week. In the magazine's first issue of 2012, Carney stated:
 "Rock & Roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world. So they became okay with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be shit - therefore you should never try to be the biggest band in the world. Fuck that! Rock & Roll is the music I feel mot passionately about and I don't like to see it fucking ruined and spoon-fed down our throats in this watered-down post-grunge crap, horrendous shit."
 There is a truth in what Carney has to say here. The biggest rock bands out there right now are watered down grunge acts that have made music crafted for radio play like Nickelback and Daughtry. (Believe me, I have proof of this. You should see the ROARF stats section. Everyone wants to read my reviews for those bands as opposed to say, Turbowolf or Black Spiders.) But seeing the amount of respect and success that Carney and fellow bandmate Dan Auerbach are gaining is perhaps showing that mainstream popularity can be given to actual good acts because El Camino is genuinely fantastic.
 Every track carries with it the rock and roll attitude and The Rolling Stones effortlessly being it in the swaggering blues rock sound of Lonely Boy or the heavy and raw Money Maker. The bouncy drumbeats of Sister and rhythm sections of Nova Baby give the album a more danceable quality whilst songs like Hell of a Season and the acoustic Little Black Submarines reveal a more chilling emotional quality as Auerbach's vocals show a characteristic of melancholy and vulnerability within The Black Keys.
 Most impressive is the constant manner in which the spiky raw and rough hard rock with an array of riffing reminiscent to The Stones, The Doors and Led Zeppelin is brought together with the shimmering and grandiose production from legendary alternative music producer Danger Mouse which comes together with the rough rock and roll to stunning effect and giving the music more of a ragged diamond style to it.
 So, taking an influence from the very best classic rock bands that still manage to charm millions today and from some of the best contemporary alternative rock scenes of today El Camino presents listeners with an array of fun, gripping, laid back songs built of of very pure rock & roll which manages to charm and entrance with ease. Patrick Carney seems confident in his belief that rock and roll is dying but if he and his fellow bandmate can make it this big with music this good, he may well have to reconsider his words a little bit.

 The Black Keys' El Camino is out now via Nonesuch. The band will tour the UK in February with Band of Skulls.

Review: My Dying Bride - The Barghest O' Whitby

 Over their 20 year career, Bradford's My Dying Bride have been the perfect source for a band to completely bowl people over with morbidity with their most excellent gothic doom metal and are quite possibly one of the bleakest bands ever heard with songs of destruction of mankind, hatred to all those surrounding them and a desire for death and solitude. The pure emotion and intensity that their music drains from listeners has given them the reputation as being one of the most beautiful metal bands around. Needless to say, the release of the EP The Barghest O' Whitby containing a single 27 minute long song of the same name has been making fans happy. Or rather, extra gloomy.

 It wouldn't be an easy task to judge what the darkest My Dying Bride song is, but this is certainly up there. The Barghest O' Whitby is the bleakest that metal has ever sounded for a long time. Based on the legend of the mythological black dogs of Dartmoor that in 1677 appeared around the burial chamber of the huntsman Cabell who supposedly sold his soul to the Devil and whose ghost rides with these hounds today, The Barghest O' Whitby allows for a dark and haunting atmosphere to be built around the song as a means to set an appropriate tone for the unfolding doom of the song.
 The song starts off morbidly slow as dwindling riffs and an uncomfortably chilling violin accompaniment take centrefold and the immediate lyrics that emerge couldn't be more gothic if they tried. (I doubt I shall ever come back/ Moving thin and wane, an old danger/ A thorn am I with sunken back/ I am an enemy of you, traitor.) As you'd imagine, things don't pick up from there.
 However, things do pick up musically and the most exciting moments of the song are when this happens, such as the awesome moment at fifteen minutes in as a single piano led section being played erupts into a gloriously melancholic and dreamy guitar solo. The moment is simply awe-inspiring. However, it is at the twenty two minute part that really sums up the track's epicness, erupting into a full scale death metal mind-blowing session as monolithic riffs pound listeners to the ground and drummer Dan Mullins decides it's finally time to lose all control. Even if dwindling doom metal is not your thing, the entire song is worth it just for this.
 So, The Barghest O' Whitby is very much in the spirit of traditional My Dying Bride and as the longest and most progressive song they've ever created it clearly shows that this band aren't stepping down from the throne of bleakness any time soon. My Dying Bride have made a song that is very much epic.

My Dying Bride's The Barghest O' Whitby is out now via Peaceville.

Review: Never Shout Never - Time Travel

 Last year saw 20 year old musician Christopher Drew performing under the alias of Never Shout Never gaining a considerable amount of notoriety, with many people believing he could very well be the next big thing in pop rock. Hell, "Never Shout Never" was a trending topic on Twitter for a while, before masses of rabid Justin Bieber fans invaded with full force writing "NO! IT'S "SAY" NOT "SHOUT" and stuff. Third album Time Travel sees some changes occurring with the act now becoming a full band with a bigger fanbase. And I must say on listening to the album that if this is the future of pop rock... God help us.

 See, pop rock is already disrespected enough in the world of rock music. Some examples, I think I'm the only male in the world who enjoys All Time Low (as well as the only person who seems to realise they actually make music and aren't just poster boys) while the rest of the fanbase seems to be predominately made up of annoying thirteen year old girls. Similarly, I can only think of one other guy who possesses a You Me At Six album. (Hey Russel!) When talking to other people around me who like their rock and metal, bands like these generally generate laughter and dismissal. The only times bands like these could be enjoyed by people around me would be if I were to play it in my school's common room. (Ah, the music of the common room. Possible source material of a future rant.) I would like to see pop rock gain more credibility and respect in the world of rock music and there are some examples of it happening. But if Never Shout Never become any bigger than they already are, then such prospects are pretty much screwed.

 Time Travel is pretty much filled with various techniques that make me hate music. Simplistic Trance-Like Getaway and Silver Ecstasy gives listeners the sensation of being suffocated by sugary sweetness, a feeling that some may enjoy (pop) and that others absolutely detest. (rock) Personally, I find it relentlessly annoying.

 The emphasis on the more pop-influenced side of their music is very clear and never picks up at any point. With this in mind, Drew's repetition of the line "I sold my soul for rock and roll" on the title track will seem like a slap in face to many listeners. If you sold your soul for rock and roll, why don't you fucking play some ROCK AND ROLL?!?!? It's particularly annoying when if one considers songs like Robot and Until I Die Alone which seem to be begging to have some hard riffs fitted into the chorus but are instead dominated by extra layers of synthesizers. The synthesizers on this album are also pretty wimpy as a simple backdrop mixed with electronic bleeping in the background does not suggest any synth rock strength. Only pretentiousness.

 So, this may be an album that some people will like but frankly, as a rock album, it sounds weak and lame and as a pop album it sounds very dated. Once again pop rock has given us an act which won't allow the genre to appeal to rock fans. Who knows, it sounds like something that might be enjoyed by everyone in the common room. Or at least wouldn't make people shout "Turn that crap off!" Which roughly translates as most things that Good old Patrick and I would play.

   

Never Shout Never's Time Travel is out now via Warner Bros. The band will tour the UK in January.

Review: Nightwish - Imaginaerum

 After a career that seems to have been built upon tension, unease and uncertainty with threats of band-splits and departures of various members lurking around every corner, it's great to see that Nightwish have finally become a settled and firm-standing group. This sense of new found power has reflected on their work with current frontwoman Anette Olzon, whose vocal styles better suited for rock and metal as opposed to the more operatic vocals of former singer Tarja Turunen have given the group a much harder edge which has boosted their credibility as a symphonic metal band through the roof. With a greater sense of respectability and a chance to fully focus on crafting musical work and not focus on personal issues, the groups hard work and time away surely reflects on what they have recently brought to us. They have been making what is to be an epic fantasy film Imaginaerum and to go with that, there is also the album of the same name with tracks set to feature on the film. Listening to the album, well, it's crazy.

The film should be an epic film since it will certainly have a soundtrack to match it. Seriously, at times this album out-epics all of The Lord of the Rings trilogy combined. With the chilling opener Taikatalvi transcending into Storytime, a display of heavy metal in it's most over the top state as crashing riffs of Emppu Vuorinen and pounding drumming from Jukka Nevalainen and a mass orchestral backdrop merge together to rattle skulls of listeners in the classiest of manners.

 From thereon, Imaginaerum effortlessly manages to completely lose control and entrance listeners in it's world of orchestral Gothic darkness. The vocals of Olzon and bassist Marco Hietala are incredibly gripping and exciting throughout and with an array of metallic hooks on display throughout the insane orchestral backdrops really means no one could possibly turn their backs on any point of this album while listening. Like on the mind-blowing Scaretale which effectively highlights the character of this album. Starting with a terrifying recital of "Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses" from a group of possessed children and an insane wall of orchestral music, the song leads into an eerie symphonic backdrop that one would expect to find on a Cradle of Filth album before crunching heavy metal comes into place and the bridge of the song hurtles listeners into a section inspired by circus music. It's this kind of craziness that makes Imaginaerum. Things like that, the main fiddle backdrop that appears in the power metal inspired I Want My Tears Back and the choir of children that have a considerable appearance throughout Rest Calm, all adding up to this sense of dark insanity and bringing the brilliantly twisted musical schemes of Tuomas Holopainen to life.

 Even the slower more subtle moments of the album keep up this chilling and enchanting atmosphere, like the jazzy Slow, Love, Slow which in it's smoothness, always retains a character of murkiness about it. Although, contrasting from this Turn Loose the Mermaids is probably the most uplifting song on the album, it's trumpet solo and graceful vocals giving the song a real characteristic of triumph and victory.

 Of course, the thirteen minute epic Song of Myself cannot go unnoticed. Not only is it a clear sign of the band at their most powerful, but the series of spoken-word sections is jam packed with emotion and pure intensity and if it does not entrance you in any way possible or trigger any kind of emotional response, everyone is allowed to shout "Robot!" at you. Because that's what you probably are.

 So, as you may have worked out by now, Imaginaerum is an album filled with ideas executed in a manner that is dramatic, chilling and filled with extreme Gothic fantasy. It makes for an engaging and entrancing listen most likely to leave readers in a state of enchantment and awe. If there is going to be a fantasy film in which this is the soundtrack then it's definitely not the kind of film for parents to take their bored children to during half term.

Nightwish's Imaginaerum is out now via Nuclear Blast.

Review: Prosperina - Faith In Sleep

 Stoner rock has to be the most criminally underrated and overlooked rock genre of all time. At least that's the impression I've gotten from my days of being a rock fan at school, which in itself alienates me from a lot of people. The amount of times people have asked "Who?" whenever I've casually referenced Josh Homme is unacceptable and after being pretty much insulted when being asked if I was talking about a character from the Twilight movies when referring to Kyuss made me give up on discussing the genre, as I've come to realise the people around me just don't know what they're missing. Such as the sophisticated epicness presented to us on Faith In Sleep the mind-blowing debut from Welsh trio Prosperina.

 Faith In Sleep is basically a slice of rock and roll from the otherside. Honestly, it's hard to think of anything as grand in it's sense of atmospherically bleak soundscapes and its emotional sense of lowness and doom as this album. Prosperina make up this melancholic grace with their ability to make use of the best bits of the stoner rock and doom metal styles in which they execute so well. In mixing the more frantic, quicker paced riffing of stoner rock which at times reaches a grunge element, like in Arcanum with it's pounding and bouncy riffs being more reminiscent of Breaking Benjamin or various other grunge acts that everyone hates. However it's tracks like God Vs. Darwin and Trees Have Eyes where the real stoner rock influence begins to rub off and we get into the epic headbanging territory. Gethin Woolcock's harsh vocals and wild guitar skills allows such awesomeness to sound effortless.
 However, the real treat on Faith In Sleep is without a doubt the slower doom laden sections. It's these sections where the albums earthly and epic productions are at their most effective. Temples carries with it a snazzy sense of grace and majesty with its icy dwindling riffs and crunching basslines has the same kind of beauty and grandeur of Isis while Hypnagog making use of harsh and intimate vocals in it's dragging and bleak riffs has a character of pure evil about it, conjuring up a song with the qualities of a painful journey to hell, which in the realms of doom metal is a fantastic quality to have. Also impressive is the instrumental title track, the most intimate track on the album which amongst the awesome roughness and epic soundscaping manages to highlight a sense of vulnerability and sensitivity in the music. It is very beautiful. It is in these tracks where the most shocking and dramatic elements allow themselves to emerge and anyone who is not completely entranced and shocked by the epic bridge of Snow Leopard with the intimate chanting of "Into the jaws of death we ride" probably doesn't have a soul.
 Faith In Sleep gives me a reason to carry more faith in stoner rock since the fresh blood of the genre sounds as epic and unforgiving as many bands at their prime and Prosperina achieve this with a high sound of confidence and assurance with what they do. And when an album as outstanding as this is created, having such faith and confidence in a genre that is horrendously underrated and overlooked pays off well.

 Prosperina's Faith In Sleep is out now via Maybe Records.

Review: Black Veil Brides - Rebels

 As the new year begins, it seems like a time to check how real and devoted my internet following really are. I'd like to think that some of you readers out there have really gotten into the various things I have to say and that this isn't your first time checking out the kind of things I have to say. Yes I'm an egomaniac. The best way to see if any of you residents of the internet will stay by my side throughout this year is to see if you can still respect me and care for my opinion when I speak highly of a band that all the internet detests. Let's talk about the Black Veil Brides.

 Back in July, I found myself in my house alone in my kitchen making a spot of lunch. I had Scuzz, the best TV channel... ever turned up loud so no music could be missed out and just as I started slicing up some cheese for a toastie, I just heard this frantic drum solo kick into action, followed by some pounding metalcore breakdowns and classy lead guitar wailing. Having thought that Atreyu had gone on hiatus, I was confused and was in dire need of knowing who was making this awesome sound. I checked out what was being shown to me on the TV only to find five young and handsome devils parading around in last-place-at-a-KISS-lookalike-competition outfits in a car scrapyard performing their song The Legacy. Looking at this my initial thoughts were "Oh my god, the Black Veil Brides are actually a kick-ass band." Contrary to the countless suggestions of a lack of talent and homophobic slurs that internet comment boards liked and still do enjoy throwing at me. So, in the process of taking a decent chunk of the world by storm the Hollywood quintet had time in December to release some new material for fans in the form of new EP Rebels.

 Instantly listening to new song Coffin assures listeners that Black Veil Brides have an optimistic future and leaves a promising message for the apparent new album being released in spring. Sin months seems like a short space of time for a band's sound to mature but Coffin proves this to be possible and perhaps the pressure of being such a massive rock band with an emotional fan base and endless criticism has forced frontman Andy Biersack to grow up fast. Such a notion is displayed in the song with his more in-depth Gothic vocals which seem to progress in a more mature state in each release; even his screaming is at it's most tolerable here. Inspecting the axe-work of Jake Pitts and Jinxx makes the songs more like a retrospective of the groups work up to now with the chaotic and frantic pounding of 2010's We Stitch These Wounds painted over with the extra mightiness of last year's Set the World on Fire. It suggests the group may go on to record what could be their definitive work.

 Following the ambitious new song the band kick back and have some fun with the two covers on offer. Their take on Billy Idol's Rebel Yell is of quite some interest as they actually give it their own treatment playing it more sterile and allowing for some chugging riffs to make up the main verse structure. it makes it difficult to compare to the original. I'd actually say both are equally good. And of course the group show off their obvious charm in changing the lyrics "But when I'm tired and lonely/ She sees me to bed" to "But when I'm sad and lonely/ She gives me head." Yes, this is the music of Hollywood.

 Before inspecting their cover of KISS' lesser-known hit Unholy, I did have to check out the original version of the song which was cool but a little soft on the edges, so I had lots of confidence when going to look up the cover, but when I typed the artist and song into the Youtube searchbar the results section caught my curiosity and I ended up finding hundreds of videos of angry kids stating that Knives and Pens is a rip-off of Avenged Sevenfold's Unholy Confessions. Getting back on track, though BVB do add an extra sense of heaviness to the music conceived by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, they do manage to elevate the unintended silliness of the original to new levels and of course the guest solo from heavy metal royalty Zakk Wylde allows this over-the-top atmosphere to take full flight. Of course, the song is absolutely glorious in it's ridiculousness.

 So, Rebels is a sign that all is well at camp BVB. The riffing is still strong, production is getting tighter and maturity is taking it's form across the music while the group are still looking at their musical and personal past with pride and still with a smile on their face. And with that, perhaps their constant rewarding of breakthrough acts of 2011 were truly deserving. Perhaps amid all the online sneering and mockery of the group, the devoted BVB Army and anyone who was looking for decent modern hard rock were watching the birth of something truly awesome.

Black Veil Brides' Rebels is out now via Universal Republic Records. The band will tour the UK in March with Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows.

Review: Metallica - Beyond Magnetic

 Happy new year! It's good to be back, my friends and supposedly real fanbase. I hope you all had a wonderful christmas and have had an awesome 2012 so far. I know I have. My year started off unconventionally with five days of skiing in Valliore in France. Skiing has never really been one of my most skilled pastimes nor has it ever really been a pastime of mine but the feeling of liberation and intensity felt when speeding along the french mountains, not giving a care in the world is unreal and the amount of fun times I had with my amazing friends is something I'll never forget. So already 2012 is shaping up to be what will be remembered as a good year. Apart from that, since leaving everyone I've been pretty much immersed in rock and metal as ever, taking my time to check out more classic albums I'd never had the chance to hear and going more in depth into the void of lesser known groups and of course trying to get my hands on all the albums that made it on my Top 50 Albums of 2011 list. And I've heard some awesome stuff. It gives me a great sense of optimism for 2012 and the hopefully endless amount of reviewing I'll have to do.

 Before we can do any of that, let's have a look at some of the more major releases from the end of last year that I couldn't manage to focus on due to my massive end of year post. And since 2012 is supposed to be the year which will end in the apocalypse, who better to start it off with than the four horsemen themselves, Metallica? In December, the group released the EP Beyond Magnetic unto the world, a collection of songs that never made it onto 2008's Death Magnetic, an album that saw them finally return to thrash metal after venturing into blues rock territory for Load and ReLoad and the honestly-not-that-bad St Anger which everyone hated the guts of. Though the reaction to Death Magnetic was pretty positive, the cynics did make the point that they saw the return to thrash as a cop-out from Metallica to make up for the amount of love lost following St Anger. I can't be too sure as to whether I could agree with such a claim for Death Magnetic but as such speculations return for Beyond Magnetic, with it being released only two months after the genuinely horrendous and mentally scarring Lulu, their collaborative album with Lou Reed, it's hard to disagree with such cynical views of the group trying to gather back those who were pissed off with their latest musical venture.
 But this isn't really an issue to fret over at this moment. If you enjoyed Death Magnetic, you are pretty much in for a treat with this EP with the songs having the same thrash and soul filled sound that fueled 2008's effort with opener Hate Train hurtling listeners into an energetic thrash bruiser which captures a snapshot of traditional Metallica mixed with the opinion dividing 90s material ideal better than many songs from the actual album. Maybe it's because the EP contains only rough mixes of the songs and thus lacking the kind of production problems that many complained about on Death Magnetic. Either way, the track captures the band nailing this combination of styles effortlessly with furious riffing from James Hetfield and rapid bursts of lead guitar picking from Kirk Hammet. (I really want to use "frantic" as a description here, but associating Frantic with Kirk Hammet's lead guitar skills would mean we wouldn't hear any lead guitar. It's a St Anger "joke".)
 Even on a four track EP, the group manage to capture an array of emotion on Beyond Magnetic, such as the brooding and sinister atmosphere created throughout Hell and Back sounding like a more awesome version of the material of the Load albums before smoothly riding into a pounding adrenaline infused bridge. Meanwhile Just a Bullet Away and Rebel of Babylon are that bit more melancholic and vengeful on their outlooks which puts that extra depth and emotional heaviness into the delivery of the songs. It allows for more slow paced sections in the songs, which I enjoy on the latest Metallica material because there always seems to be something of a stoner/doom metal influence, the most violent type of slow music.
 So, this EP teaches us a collection of things. It shows Metallica are still very much strong in making very pure and raw heavy metal, the EP's release thankfully shows that they aren't going to fall into the nightmarish realms of a full time career in Avant-Garde music and it shows that sometimes the best music can be hidden away. As I say, these songs are better than many Death Magnetic tracks and if Metallica can stay like this for now, then we have no reason to lose faith in the Bay Arena quartet just yet. ROARF 2012 is officially off to a good start!

 Metallica's Beyond Magnetic is out now via Warner Bros. The band will headline the Download Festival at Donnington Park on the 9th of June.