Review: Deacon Blue - The Hipsters

 They might call themselves The Hipsters but you don't need to be a hipster to know that Deacon Blue are one of the best bands to come out of Scotland of the past 25 years. With countless singles that have gained them a name for themselves since their platinum selling debut Raintown, they've been a constant inspiration on what it is to be a good pop band. And with a number of recent live shows that have been praised by everyone from The Times' David Sinclair to... my Dad, everyone's falling in love with them all over again.

 And that's not surprising given the amount of time it's been between this latest release and 2001's Homesick there is a high amount of people looking to see Deacon Blue once again. And with this album they certainly deliver in the delivery of lush power pop tunes with strong melodies. And it's one of those rare albums were the simplicity of the songwriting can still deliver engaging results in a pop music context, it's actually quite a rare thing these days.

 It of course makes the charismatic performance of frontman Ricky Ross the standout feature of Deacon Blue's performance throughout the album which on grand opener Here I Am in London Town reveals that in Ross' time away he has matured like a fine wine, with a dustier vocal performance that matches the finesse of the musical backdrop. And that's really quite unexpected because they're from the West End of Glasgow and wouldn't know what wine was. The closest thing would be Buckfast. Man, I'm funny.

 In it's grandeur and crystalline production, the rest of The Hipsters drifts along with an air of grace and warmth, as listeners are immersed within the shrilling backdrops of Stars and britpop reminiscent melodies of The Outsiders, while becoming much more emotionally gripped within the powerful emotion packed into the stirring balladry of She'll Understand awash with the delicate harmonies of Ross and Lorraine McIntosh, one of the few husband wife duos that have actually, well, lasted. And as the album ends on the melancholic tones of This Year's Drug of Choice, you've learnt once more that Deacon Blue hold they key to writing pop songs with class, subtlties and charm.

 So to hand out the kind of critique that everyone gives to bands like Deacon Blue when they release an album in this modern age, it's not an album with a powerful killer single. There's no Dignity or Real Gone Kid on this album. And the fact is, they don't need to have songs like that anymore and if you think there needs to be, you've clearly not absorbed their back catalogue enough. The Hipsters is the sound of a band that have spent the past years struggling to show the world what they're made of and now that they have they're chilling back and playing nicely written pop songs. So indeed, no song on the album is a game changer like previous material has been seen as. But it's a beautiful set of songs on it's own that should surely satisfy even the most stern of listeners. Anyway, if you say band things about Deacon Blue, I'll have to take it as a personal insult against my family. An that's another thing that makes it good listening.

Deacon Blue's The Hipsters is out now via Demon Music Group.

Review: Wintersun - Time I

 Anyone that's become a browser of the now massive Metal Memes Sub-Reddit on the big old internet will have come to learn over the past few months that one of the most long awaited and anticipated releases of the year has been Time I the first part of a planned concept album and the first material from the band since their highly acclaimed self-titled debut album from 2004. Of course, it's been so long since an album's been released from them, that I've really started to go off of the brand of symphonic heavy power metal that they deal in, as bands like Rhapsody and Kamelot start to turn into bands that just come off sounding cheesy when they're meant to be taken seriously. Yet in spite of this, not even I in my cynical-to-this-style-of-metal state can be prevented from being blown away from what the first part of this concept has on offer.

 And that's quite a powerful statement on the quality of this album because in terms of overtly cheesy power metal ingredients, Time I has it all. I believe the term "Disney metal" has been devised by some cynics to sum up the cheesy symphonic backdrops and constant sense of triumph and glory packed into these music and certainly as you sit through the four minute intro track When Time Fades Away it does sound like you're sitting through the intro of a well animated film set in historic times where you may learn about your morals through battling or something. Obviously, some people will listen to this, take joy in the symphonic elements and describe it as "epic!" and it's probably the reaction of these people alone why I take much more joy in listening to hardcore and stoner rock bands.

 There isn't a second in this album where you won't hear the shrill of some kind of classical instrument but when the band actually choose to pick their own instruments up and play above the symphonic backdrops things sometimes change for the more intense. Former Ensiferum guitarist Jari Mäenpää takes on a commanding frontman role once more programming any further keyboard elements and cooking up a storm of riffage and massive guitar solos alongside Teemu Mäntysaari as the pair unleash a rapid fire attack of guitar madness on Sons of Winter and Stars that still sounds cheesy amongst the symphonies but also has it's own sense of extremity and intensity, which continues across the album whether it's the big grooves of Land of Snow and Sorrow or the frequent beatdowns of the album's title track, aided effervescently by former Rotten Sound drummer Kai Hahto.

 But to go back to the matter of Mäenpää's frontman performance, the most impressive part is the contrasting dynamics of his vocal performance that constantly shifts from the kind of operatic bellowing that gives the cheesy nature of this band a name for itself, with it essentially sounding like the lead role in a classic Disney sing along. But the frequent shift from such melodic power to the traditionally cackling vocals of proper black metal that shows a certain skill and variation of power which is always an impressive feat, when you consider the fact that Immortal probably couldn't sing properly to save themselves. Actually I've never checked if the can, and probably never will. Either way, it puts little doubt into Mäenpää's frontman ability.

 It's with these elements all wonderfully weaved together that makes Time I one of the year's best works in extreme symphonic metal. Wintersun make an album featuring that gives fans of extreme power metal all that they're looking for in setting up backdrops with big orchestral passages and using operatic vocals mixed with the blackened screaming to create something that is truly grand. And if that style of music is your cup of the then this album clearly is a recklessly essential buy. Which is why it's difficult for me to come to a final verdict since unlike the Metal Memes community, this isn't my scene at all. While being unashamedly impressive and accepting a certain cheesiness in all it does, there's no way I would spend money on this album or put it in as part of my music collection so unlike certain names in power metal Wintersun aren't a band that can find it's way into the hands of metal fans everywhere. And maybe there's something in the fact that the best that a genre has to offer should be kept for those that care the most. And that will surely go on to make Time I and II the power metal albums for power metal fans. And no one else.

Wintersun's Time I is out now via Nuclear Blast. 

Review: Three Days Grace - Transit of Venus

 I had a nice surprise today when a friend from school who since coming out swinging from sixth year with the rest of us has traveled far away to Hong Kong got into touch with me through a nice bit of social networking. Anyway, one of his big announcements was that he finally found what he believed to be a metal song that he loved, sending me a link. Obviously I never know what to expect with that person in particular other than a general distaste for rock music so to discover he had actually sent me a link to a rock song was a good surprise. However, the surprise itself was turned somewhat sour by the artist of the song itself, Three Days Grace.

 Until this moment, I've been quite successful in avoiding Three Days Grace as they seem to be a band in one of those bizarre sub section of highly mainstream rock bands where they can gain well over a million Youtube views, yet there will be little to no press on them at least in magazine form meaning that no professional reviewers are around to inform the public that their current output has been nothing more than a bland collection of riffs that were left out from the commercial wave of nu metal. For being too bland. For being too bland to appear in a Staind song for goodness sake! And in the case of Three Days Grace, the lack of negativity means the love for the band has reached non understandable levels in which thousands of people have gotten lyrics and logos tattooed on them in a grim celebration of blandness! But everyone to their own, eh?

 So that's been my thoughts on the Canadian quartet so far with their efforts on their self titled debut, 2006's One-X and 2009's Life Starts Now. And that's quite possibly why their latest effort Transit of Venus is something of a relief. Because this album has seen the band begin their quest of thinking outside of the box and taking on the idea of crafting music into something more expansive, more flowing, not just made for instant radio airplay.

 But of course, that's not to say that the album isn't free of guaranteed singles. With their feel good choruses played out on the big riffs of frontman Adam Gonteir and lead guitarist Barry Stock, tracks like The High Road and The Time That Remains show that the hit single formula hasn't been completely ditched. But in favour, songcrafting has been built upon. Inspect lead single Chalk Outline. Amongst the swinging melodies and grungy guitar work, the song makes use of pounding synthesizers of the modern swirling type that you may have heard on Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero or on any band from the world of indietronica, which (In my horrible head of straightforward stereotypes where I always imagined that Three Days Grace's average fanbase would use lots of glossily produced uber-mainstream pop rock bands as evidence that "rock n' roll ain't dead" then don't even consider listening to acts that provide the original danger of rock and roll through a completely different musical style) seems like something that would cause something of a backlash.

 More importantly than judging for lead singles though is the fact that with this album, there's just so much more thought and effort put into it. With the help of pop rock's most beloved producer Don Gilmore, big backdrops are put into place making the massive opening of Sign of the Times and Give Me a Reason much grander affairs that when put into work with the big riffs and grooves really helps them charge forward. It particularly helps Gonteir's sense of anger and tension come out effortlessly on the group's cover of Micheal Jackson's Give In to Me, a performance that the band do make their own.

 When you hear the new intricacies and detail that shine through with this heightened album production, there's a sense of heightened boldness, ambition and passion that comes through in the band's performance and when you compare these tracks to one of their older singles Pain, it's obvious that big grand production is the kind of thing that bands like Three Days Grace need to rely on to have any hope of having any performance of worth because the older material now comes off as sounding exceptionally lazy.

 It would hardly be a challenge for Three Days Grace to make an album that's been better than their previous releases so far given their quality, or lack thereof, but with Transit of Venus it seems that the band may have gone and defied all expectations and made something resembling a credible album. Of course radio fodder is still to be found on the album but no one's been tearing into Shinedown and Halestorm that much this year, have they? What's important is that for the first time, they've made something that wants to be a fully recognised album and not just a collection of would-be radio hits. Perhaps my friend in Hong Kong could have sent me a link to one of these songs and his introduction into rock music could have been a more interesting proposition. But he doesn't really need to impress me. Really, you won't get very far if you try to impress me to get through life.

Three Days Grace's Transit of Venus is out now via RCA.

Review: Imagine Dragons - Night Visions

 It's about time that I covered this band now that the mainstream world of alternative music is being dominated by quirky indie pop bands a la Fun., Of Monsters and Men and Dog is Dead. And so we come to Imagine Dragons, a indie quartet from Las Vegas looking to follow in the steps of their Vegas alt rock brethren The Killers by taking their influences from 1980's synthpop, the best of britpop and taking their honest thought out lyrics and threading them within absorbing atmospheres. Sounds decent right?

 It's decent enough for them to be selling out every venue they've played in the USA so far and with a growing reputation that sees them coming to these shores and a recently released debut full length Night Visions this is a band destined go far. Especially if they do just let the album do the talking and they'll move to unstoppable heights.

 It's never a fully manageable feat with a lot of bands in the same vain as Imagine Dragons, but their prime skill is the creation of music that is highly reliant on electronic backdrops and usage of synthesizers that still boasts a strong human element throughout the songwriting with both executed to a tee in their overall skill and perfection of craft.

 The usage of synthesizers to create vibrant and gripping backgrounds and foregrounds to their songs is more advanced than their fellow indie pop peers as the thumping opener Radioactive proves, with it's beautifully demonstrated ability to balance out gentle spidery guitar riffs with strong synthesized backdrops that have surely taken on a dubstep influence which is all brought together through the powerhouse melodies of frontman Dan Reynolds. ("Wait, melodic dubstep? That can't be right, it's just random computer noises!" said the people that don't care.) Aside from that, the use of electronic serves as a prominent reminder of the potency and substance that the best of the 1980's pop musicians gave us today.

 The influence displayed within the band's music does happen to last decades however. From thereon, the sound of chilled 90's britpop in the vain of Blur and Pulp can be heard in Demons with the chilled attitudes of those bands being shifted up a gear into the greater sound of ambition and big booted determination, while the more soulful sound that britpop boasted in the early 2000's is reflected in the Keane-isms of Amsterdam.

 It's with this fine amount of production that Imagine Dragons summon up a finely crafted album that boasts a tonne of inspirations and it's the soulful performance of Reynolds that serves as the cherry on the top of the cake. His stunning performance on the likes of It's Time boast enough power to sound reminiscent of The Gaslight Anthem's Brian Fallon which in the context of powerhouse emotional performances on the likes of Hear Me and Bleeding Out are vital in unleashing a powerful empathetic response from listeners.

 With these basic ingredients, Imagine Dragons have created a powerful debut offering that shows them to be dynamic songwriters that can take the best of 30 years of pop music behind them and summon it into a wonderfully fitting musical show of immersion and beauty. And with a frontman who boasts his pure sincerity in every line sung, the music melds together with the same truthfulness as the lyrics of Dan Reynolds. Of course if you were never convinced by the rising of these fun loving indie pop bands this won't convince you in any way apart from continue to show you the joy you're missing out on I suppose.

Imagine Dragons' Night Visions is out now via Interscope. The band will tour the UK in November.

Review: The Acacia Strain - Death is the Only Mortal

 It makes sense that I look at this album because I've found myself continuing to do what all stereotypical teenage guys do these days and going to metalcore shows. That's right, I'm off to see Architects in November, which is an extremely exciting proposition given the strength of Daybreaker and a frankly stellar back catalogue behind them, it's going to be a wicked night. So, in an attempt to make myself seem like I know what I'm doing I'm taking a look at the support acts and have discovered a recent release Death is the Only Mortal has come from opening act The Acacia Strain, an overlooked shaper of the more hardcore based style of metalcore that has formed some of the genre's best bands.

 If you're unfamiliar with The Acacia Strain, you should know that the Massachusetts quartet have never the cheeriest of people around. And it shows clearly on this latest album filled with fearsome deathcore performances that feel blackened by the band's sense of hatred and tiredness of life and even bleaker via the intense heaviness that comes through in a doom metal state of mind.

 And the heaviness is delivered effortlessly through a range of sluggish beatdowns from Daniel Laskiewicz and Jack Strong where the likes of Brain Death and Dust and the Helix are guaranteed crushers that with the brutal growls of frontman Vincent Bennett talking about his obsession with death will lure listeners into a realm of unending despair.

 Of course, The Acacia Strain always do go beyond the realms of deathcore and unlike your average collection of breakdowns that Emmure like to hand out, there's a lot more focus on structuring a range of vibrant textures to provide the backdrop to songs that make the performances of disturbing opener Doomblade and Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow really come to life. A highlight within this is the enthralling interludes and moments of gripping mellower passages heard longingly throughout Time and Death and God, which with Bennett's roars of "I wear a watch even though I don't believe in time" a more rounded mark of the band's devastation.

 This amount of bleakness and doom is highly effective in making Death is the Only Mortal a solid deathcore album. It's bleak brutal and will definitely create a storm at places like The Garage. It's no secret that nothing on this album could be considered new or innovative in any way, but the band make their playing of metalcore work in their own favour, just like the selection of artists they're soon to be touring with. And with that, one of the band's that helped shape the best names in the modern day "core" movement will open up proceedings to a selection of bands that act as their natural torchbearers.

The Acacia Strain's Death is the Only Mortal is out now via Rise. The band will tour the UK in November with Architects, Deez Nuts and Bury Tomorrow.

Review: Stone Sour - House of Gold and Bones Part 1

 There's some curiosity for Stone Sour to be releasing a new album at a time when the entire world points it's concerns and thoughts towards another certain band hailing from Iowa. Yes, the state's favourite son Corey Taylor is returning with his "other" band with the start of their most ambitious album series to date at a time when people are only concerned with seeing Corey put his leather mask back on and play in Slipknot. I don't want to be critical of people for having this mindset. Ever since buying my ticket for next year's Download Festival, there hasn't been many other bands at the front of my mind, since you know, I'm going to be seeing the band that first got me into metal who I've wanted to see since I was 14 years old. That and with the final release of Slipknot's Antennas To Hell Greatest Hits Set, everyone is now expecting new material from the band.

 So indeed, lots to say about Slipknot, less to say about Stone Sour, which has officially been demoted again to "side-project" status despite being releasing fourth album House of Gold and Bones Part 1, an album billed by Taylor as sounding like Alice in Chains meets Pink Floyd's The Wall and serving as the first part of a major two part concept album. But even if this album gets less attention than previous releases it will go down as one of the finest works of music that Taylor has done out of Slipknot, in some cases even bettering them.

 The earlier material of Stone Sour is still great but when you hear it, there's always a sense of restriction, a sense that this band is purely in operation for Corey Taylor and guitarist James Root to show off a more sensitive side to their work in the 'Knot. But now, it seems that House of Gold and Bones is playing out with no holds barred, unafraid to lay down an extra amount of density and adrenaline yet to be found within the Stone Sour body of work. Unlike previous singles from the band, Gone Sovereign and Absolute Zero don't sound like obvious ready for radio airplay singles but fit in well as album pieces. And with monolithic chugging blasted out by Root and fellow six stringer Josh Rand on these singles, this is an album that really shows straight away that Stone Sour can be truly heavy in ways unheard of from who may have been their fellow peers in the big ugly post grunge scene.

 And so exists an awareness from all the band of their requirement to do something bolder and more challenging in the face of adversity, that a post grunge band shouldn't be able to convincingly become a legitimate modern heavy metal band in one album, but with soaring melodies that hit hard along A Rumour of Skin and RU486, boasted further through the growling vocals of Taylor completely different to those executed in Slipknot, there's no denying that this is how heavy metal was meant to turn out in this modern day and age with a voice of pure anger edging it onward.

 While the band may have only now become heavier and more metal based than their post grunge contemporaries, they've always been equipped with more class, and this album is no exception. It's seen in the recurring performance of The Travellers with wonderfully layered soundscapes awash with grand sweeping orchestras that gives the album the sound of a film score that surely lures the listeners into the swelling melancholy of the album and it's concepts.

 But the most apparent theme on this album really is that of doom and despair, of the type that Alice In Chains effortlessly planted into rock music for all kinds of bands to rip off poorly. Not here though. Tired and Taciturn are both layered in absolute misery with melodies that drag listener into the veins of Taylor's sorrows. And with Taylor's heart rendering vocal performance, the music is a force of pure empathy and beauty.

 I suppose this is what makes it a shame to see Stone Sour being billed as nothing but a "side-project" for Corey Taylor and Jim Roots. It's apparent that they've put just as much of their hearts and souls into this creation of pure excellence as they have into Slipknot yet the individual power of the band is yet to be recognised. However, House of Gold and Bones Part 1 shows itself off as the band's boldest and most accomplished albums that sees them come into their own right as a real band and not just a radio friendly side-project. There's obviously some worry that Part 2 of this double album may not live up to the incredible album, but if it does, then Corey might just have put his name to something that will outshine the band he works for when he slips that mask on.

Stone Sour's House of Gold and Bones Part 1 is out 22nd October via Roadrunner. The band will tour the UK in December with Papa Roach.

Review: Dog is Dead - All Our Favourite Stories

 I have a memory of our time at T in the Park early on the Sunday morning in which me and my fellow companions were hanging out in a tent pissing around while pissed and looking at the lineup, in the search for a good band to see. At that moment, one individual looked at the page and mockingly stated "We could go and see a lovely band with friendly songs like Dog is Dead!" And so we laughed, safe in the knowledge that a band with suck a harsh name would never get anywhere in the mainstream eye or manage to write any kind of nice song.

 Therefore, it's only natural that the first CD I should find stacked everywhere as I walk in to HMV in Aberdeen this week is All Our Favourite Stories, the debut full length from Nottingham indie pop quintet Dog is Dead filled with all kinds of brief rave reviews regarding the album. And wouldn't you know it's fairly well deserved.

 Like it's various indie pop peers that have also made some fantastic albums this year (And the only group I can think of right now is Of Monsters and Men. My bad.) the band can take themselves through a varying array of emotions and rich tones in their performances but always end things on a high note in a very beautifully heartwarming way. Opener Get Low might not suggest that feelings of joy can be found with the slithering basslines of Lawrence Cole and layered keyboard backdrops creating something rather unnerving.

 However, it's through a journey of different ideas, craft and varying musicianship through each band member that listeners feel a varying emotional output that always provoke some intense response from listeners. There's the subtle swing of Do the Right Thing, that even at it's softest moments should encourage listeners to start swaying with their arms in the air, the sense of shiver and immensity that comes with the performance from frontman Robert Milton on Teenage Daughter which feels like a performance with no barriers between headphones and the listener and that he may as well be singing directly in your ear.

 But making uplifting pop music is a priority within the band and from the sensitivity that can be heard in the performances of Hands Down to the tense backdrops of River Jordan, all songs are eventually tackled with an uplifting grace delivered through colossal choruses and beautiful harmonies, truly the main ingredients to get a stadium of people on their feet.

 If there is one put-down I have to give the album (And I don't really want to because they all seem like cool guys) it's the unavoidably cringeworthy work of true indie pop on Glockenspiel Song, a song so light and quirky, that you can just tell it'll be used in adverts before you know it, just like Frankie & the Heartstrings are now best known for flogging Dominoes Pizza. It's a genuinely good song filled with pure pop euphoria, but one cannot help but listen to it and imagine a voice appearing over the top of it informing us about the new sale at DFS.

But with my uniquely weird complaints aside, All Our Favourite Stories shows a solid craft if songwriting that explains the way that more organically created music with an immersive kind of charm is making a big return to the mainstream forefront. Dog is Dead have the skills needed to pull off simple alt rock songs with big pop-induced hooks and melodies and can go beyond the call of duty, crafting songs for listeners to lose themselves in. And if you can't recognise good songwriting through that, I'm sorry for you. You're probably afraid to approach a band with as harsh a name as Dog is Dead. Yeah what a harsh name! I bet they're a crust punk band or something!

Dog Is Dead's All Our Favourite Stories is out now via Warner Music. The band will tour the UK from October-November with Beans on Toast.