Lists: Heavy Blog Is Heavy's Best Of Selections, Part 1

I've been throwing some input into a few of these selections recently...

Heavy Blog Is Heavy's Best Of: Spooky Albums For Halloween

Dark Buddha Rising might just be the creepiest band I have ever come across. Their occult, languorous doom-drone is divisively seductive. With a tone so dark, yet one so easily penetrated, it's all too easy to get swept up in its sultry underscore. Their music expands ever outward from a mile-thick chant that sounds like it comes from the throats of a coven of hooded giants. Loud enough to rattle your teeth with enough low-end to invade the sub-conscious, then suffocating and brutal enough to send your brain into spasms. It is music that lurks in the shadows; garotte wire at the ready. Dakhmandal is a stupefying, suffocating veil; it is a lesson in the art of covert indoctrination.

Heavy Blog Is Heavy's Best Of: Power Metal

Embedded with the symphonic side of power metal rather than the speedier characteristic, this Turisas debut really has more to do with folk metal, yet it remains a valid and important touchstone to finding the true heart and soul of the genre. Like those other albums listed here, it’s without doubt a pure celebration of metal. It’s uplifting and, actually, quite oddly amusing. I defy anyone who hears this for the first time not to smile. Throughout, it bubbles with orchestral instrumentation. There’s the utter joy and mesmeric, dancing accordion of ‘In The Court Of Jarisleif’ and the bright and sparkling ‘Fields of Gold’. It all flows beautifully and comes hard-wired with a steady rhythmic underscore, pulsating drums and sweeping keys. Of course, the bonus is the fact it tells the 11th century tale of the Vikings’ (or rather the Varangians’) journey through the Baltic, so it really is the most fun you can have while learning history.

Heavy Blog Is Heavy's Best Of: Way, Way Different

You want a change of musical direction? Try Iron Maiden‘s The Number Of The Beast on for size. Being NWOBHM pioneers, the sound of those early albums was hewn from a combination of the strongest heavy music scenes of the time – melodic rock, thrash and, thanks to Paul Di’Anno’s delivery, a heavy dose of punk. Bruce Dickinson, arriving from the all-conquering Samson, brought us his operatic range, his ear for harmony and, most importantly of all, his love for a good story. Consequently, the songwriting became more complex and the performances more vivid.

Without doubt, being an album displaying both bite and melody, this is their crossover point. Here, they are still attuned to their thrashier side, as tracks like the faster, punchier “Invaders” and “22 Acacia Avenue” will attest (you can almost hear the influence of Di’Anno snarling somewhere behind Dickinson’s sharp, clipped delivery). However, by the time they hit the monster, more languid, storytelling of songs like the infectious title-track and the eerie “Hallowed Be Thy Name” they are breaking new ground and carving their future careers in stone. Both these legendary numbers still stand out proudly today as two of their best.

Heavy Blog Is Heavy's Best Of: Progressive Metalcore

Having seared our earlobes with the intensive rough-edged ‘core of 2009’s In The Shadow Of Gods, last year the UK’s No Consequence set about joining up the dots and coloring in the spaces with a good dose of progressive layering. Listening to IO now, still the key to unlocking the beast within lies in the lyrical content. Here, is a bunch of pissed-off individuals, angry at the way that this modern life of ours works. Fists are shaken at the lies that are fed, the political red tape that we have to cross and the cover-ups that keep those to blame safe. Married to these strong, emotive hardcore ethics comes either a focussed, fiery assault or subversive side-steps into spaced-out, atmospheric prog.

Whether screamed or sung, played at break-neck or ponderous speeds, the whole is balanced beautifully. It is the sort of loud, impactful music that current heroes The Safety Fire have been blowing our minds with of late. One defining focal point that says it all comes worming its way through the skidding middle-distance wedge of strings and drums, from behind the drop-offs and dreamscaping, from beyond even the distant, meandering lead. One solitary voice; a bellowed front of house vocal that builds to scream “What have we become?” in our recoiling faces. Yes, busting with infectious hooks, introspective wit and some of the most gorgeous segues this side of an Arusha Accord construction, IO marks one giant leap in the evolution of No Consequence.


Want to catch the full lists? Go here: http://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/category/lists/

There will be more lists to follow... it is inevitable.

Album Review: Turisas – Turisas2013

Let’s get this out of the way right now – who in their right mind calls an album Turisas2013? It’s just two words wedged together that, even when separated, mean next to nothing. Mathias Nygård, the band’s lyricist and principal songwriter, feeling the need to explain it up front, calls it “the perfect combination of self-titled with a touch of Black Sabbath’s Vol.4 and Van Halen’s 1984.” Those are not the sort of album titles to try and live up to. The former was forced on the band by the record company who wanted to call it Snowblind and the latter actually appeared on the front cover as MCMLXXXIV – still awful but at least it looked a little more interesting like that. No, sir, it’s a needlessly ambiguous, slapdash and horribly misguided eyesore of a title. Still, what’s in a name — it’s all about the music, right?


Well, get ready to expect a lot more power and a lot less folk. Turisas‘ battle metal ethos is still there but the beats per minute have shot up and the steady, emotion-draining builds have all but gone. The musical structure now has less additional elements and fewer layers. The Turisas onion has, essentially, fused together and consequently the initial hit is earlier, harder and more direct. As an example, check out the bluster and pomp of “Into The Free”; behold the jagged guitars, the hammering double-kick and the heroic chants. Elsewhere, “Piece By Piece” and “For Your Own Good” serve up a more balanced perspective, offering a little rough and a little smooth. If you don’t pick up the power aspect from the rousing chants, the songwriting, the overload of melody or the fantastical dramatics, the penny will drop when those proggy synth solos come steaming through.

So where’s this urge for change come from? Well, it has all been kick-started by a disturbingly large number of personnel changes since their last album. Thus far they’ve waved farewell to drummer Tude Lehtonen, Netta Skog (who took the band’s only accordion with her) and bassist Hannes Horma (and, incredibly, his replacement Jukka Pekka Miettenen). Robert Engstrand’s keyboards are the most noticeable addition to the band and they are the most pungent aspect of this new-look line-up and sound. None of these things are the worst of the changes though. The real kick in the teeth is the lack of a concept — Turisas’ number one calling card. Mathias has pointed out their need to “write more varied songs” when “the stories are not connected”, and you can understand this desire to explore other territory when you consider their live impact. Some might argue, however, that their live reputation has already been built on these conceptual pieces and that cutting their tracks loose just dilutes their talent for creating epic studio art, drawing their work back into the territory of those with far less talent for songwriting around a theme. Turisas can bring legends to life like no other, but they need more than a 4-minute time slot to do it in.

When they do lengthen the running time a notch or add a unique dimension, they are able to fire in stunners like “Greek Fire” and “We Ride Together”. The former is loaded with bottom-end and comes with a guitar-driven backline that shreds away like Freddy Krueger, whilst the latter is a stirring, armour-clad snarler of a track; a thrill ride atop a galloping horse heading into battle. If they’d continued in that vein, they’d have made the transition without a hitch.

Sadly, the majority of tracks are too short and too loose. They bring the dance (Turisas’ other calling-card) for “Run Bhang-Eater, Run!”, kicking off a wild party in an Arabian tent, but they upset the rhythmic flow when they cut it short to create a three-part drug and orgy monster, complete with sex noises, jazz sax and guitar solos. They also reprise their love for the drinking song with the speed-happy, pop-punker “No Good Story Ever Starts With Drinking Tea” but end up with more beer down their tunics than in their gullets – let’s just say Alestorm‘s “Rum”, Korpiklaani‘s “Vodka” and even their own “One More” put it to shame. Yet even these two have more to say than “The Days Passed” which attempts and evokes nothing inspirational and just comes across as an impassive, middling concept track missing its concept.

If you’re a fan of day-glo fantasy power metal (à la Gloryhammer or Dragonforce) then this will all cry out to your inner elf. If you’re thinking “fuck off, I’m a Viking, not some fucking pointy-eared pansy” then you’re going to be just a little pissed off. May I suggest you do a bit of burning and pillaging to make up for this strangely muddled collection. Setting fire to your incredible Stand Up And Fight graphic art cover in protest might be a step too far though, but you can burn this one — it sucks balls. Big red and black balls.

Also online @ Heavy Blog Is Heavy = http://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2013/08/15/turisas-turisas2013/

Album Review: Turisas - Stand Up And Fight

There are those close-minded souls who are quick to pour disdain on metal that doesn’t rip their heads off and spit down their throats. Expansive melodic metal and, in particular, folk metal therefore often comes in for quite a rough ride, but this seems harsh on a band such as Finland’s Turisas who seem to pour their hearts and souls into recreating belting Viking tales of yore. Now if there was one set of characters who were more likely to rip your head off and spit down your throat than the Viking warriors then I’d love to hear about them.

Turisas delight in referring to their particular genre as “Battle Metal” (Hell, they named their first album it) and it certainly suits them to a tee. They play rampaging anthems that angry up the blood and their ardent fans, like their heroes, aptly turn up to shows wielding axes and baring skin ready for the fight. Such is their dedication you’ll often see them clad only in furs and facepaint (yes, even in the winter months), so they’re a pretty hardy bunch.

Their latest offering, Stand Up And Fight, which comes enveloped in a stunning Frank Miller-esque cover, picks up where 2008′s conceptual masterpiece, The Varangian Way, left off (in Constantinople actually), but moves quickly onwards to deliver stories that speak to us on several levels. “In general, the songs are much more universal and deal with topics that can be placed just as tightly into the modern world as in the 11th century Byzantine Empire.” explains frontman Mathias Nygård. “Stand Up And Fight has much more to offer the contemporary listener.”

From the opening volley of “The March Of The Varangian Guard” to the ridiculously catchy title-track (one listen and you will be humming it for weeks), it is clear that the production is cleaner, the orchestral touches have become more prevalent and there is plenty more pomp and circumstance being carefully slotted into place. It’s down to the fact that, for the first time, there are string and horn sections hand-picked from leading symphony orchestras to accompany the band’s regular offering of guitars, keyboards, percussion, accordion and violin, and that makes this music on an epic scale; the album seriously sports the kind of bombast that is usually only to be found in grand film scores.

“βένετοι! – πράσινοι!”, which roughly translates as “The Blues! The Greens!” (the two opposing parties of the Roman/Byzantine Senate), feels straight away like this album’s tonal piece – the keystone track that “In The Court Of Jarisleif” became for their last album. Comparing the two certainly shines a light on the changes that Stand Up And Fight offers. It’s a vast, mainly instrumental, piece that inserts you, not dancing a jig round a campfire as “ITCOF” did, but standing with mouth agape in a great echoing hall with fanfares firing off in all directions. It is, essentially, an invite to the coronation of Turisas and, if I’m honest, it feels a little overblown. There are hints of guilded Dragonforce and Within Temptation here where previously has stood the muck and brass of Korpiklaani and Finntroll. This theme continues with “The Great Escape”, as bowed strings lead the way, and for the tender, bitter tang of the operatic “End Of An Empire”, but the fighting down-to-earth spirit still cuts apart the rollicking sea shanty “Hunting Pirates” and, naturally, that killer title-track.

Whichever song you pile into there’s always Nygård’s deep, emotive vocal to guide you along, a vast ocean of extravagance and drama lying behind it and rich, orchestrated strata and choral harmonies blasting through it. Only the most ardent of haters could truly fail to see the potential for this music to be coupled with an all-singing all-dancing stageshow but, having said that, here’s hoping they bring it back to the pit for the next album because this one feels a little too much like they’re trying to plunder Broadway rather than the battle-hardened spirits of their fanbase.

Also online (with samples) @ The NewReview = http://thenewreview.net/reviews/turisas-stand-up-and-fight

Album Review: Turisas - The Varangian Way (Director’s Cut)

With a tour of the UK just kicked off, it’s time to don furs and war-paint and join us in celebrating the thrilling battle metal of Turisas. If you’ve never been to one of their gigs before you’re in for one hell of a surprise! When asked to describe how their style of rousing folk-flecked music came about their lead singer, Mathias ‘Warlord’ Nygård, responded with “This comes from deep inside. We play around with history, there’s fantasy imagery there, but I hate fantasy metal with all those dragons or whatever. There’s no substance there. We actually believe in what we’re doing”.

Their latest album is a fine example of what he‘s talking about. ‘The Varangian Way’ tells the tale of a group of 11^th century Vikings, or Varangians, and their journey through the Baltic on a quest for glory. It’s literally bubbling with orchestral instrumentation amidst a thunderous momentum that propels you through the tracks. ‘To Holmgard And Beyond’ is the rousing lead track and it has a blinding battle-cry to which few can resist. Then there‘s ‘Fields of Gold’, bright and sparkling, with striking lyrics like “Is a draw the only win? Would a tie double the loss?” It bristles with a steady rhythmic underscore, pulsating drums, sweeping keys and brutish vocals. Which brings you to the utter joy that is ‘In The Court Of Jarisleif’ with a mesmeric accordion that simply dances over a sequence of tub-thumping.

The whole album is a pure celebration. It’s uplifting and, actually, quite oddly amusing. I defy anyone who hears this album for the first time not to smile. What it does best of all, though, is provide something different to the trend of machismo that runs through heavy music and, therefore, something thought-provoking. With a talent for writing such theatrical pieces you could easily imagine Nygård to move to composing soundtracks or directing movie musical scores. Who knows, this album itself may even end up in the West End! In a way, it truly is a work of art, a symbol of what can be achieved with a little imagination - and Nygård certainly isn’t lacking in that department. “Okay, people think this is crazy but there’s a reason it works. There are so many interesting, inspiring old stories that are still connected to our reality. These aren’t just meaningless lyrics, we’re telling a tale here”. And he’s right; this really is the most fun you can have while learning history.

Interview: Turisas

Finnish Viking metal, folk rock, battle metal or just plain comedy romping? Labeling a band like Turisas is hard-going. Their influences are wide-ranging and seem to come from many different art forms. They utilise clever orchestration, multiple instrument parts and inject pomp and vigour into everything they do. Yet they don furs and leather, smear their bodies with red and black paint each time they take the stage, and inspire their audience to carry fearsome weapons to shows. They sing songs of historical events, personal crises and then switch to drinking songs and dancing. I boarded the Turisas tour-bus to find out more and discovered the lead singer, Warlord AKA Mathias Nygård, almost unrecognisable sans war-paint and battle armour, alone and sitting comfortably in front of his laptop.

We’re here a few hours before you take the stage. How are you feeling?
I’m feeling alright. The days are just disappearing. There’s a lot of stuff to do. It’s waking up, trying to get stuff sorted and then going on stage. Everything’s been good so far except the constant compromise factor. It’s always a bit of a compromise.

Have you ever played Norwich before?
No. I’ve heard the pre-sales were pretty good.

There are guys out front in furs with swords already.
Yeah. It’s really proving to be a good choice to tour the UK more extensively than most bands do.

Do you have any pre-show rituals?
Actually, no. I remember discussing it with Iced Earth when we were on tour with them last Autumn and they all kind of get everybody together and scream at each other. But at the end of the day, when you’re in a hurry and you lose your lucky underwear, or something, you can fuck up the show because of the placebo effect, so we kind of, by intention avoid doing all that.

Do you all drink before the show or do you prefer to perform with a clear head?
There are bands who can do five weeks of being completely wasted all the time but for us we are here to play the shows in the end, not to party, so it’s the priority. We can’t afford to come all the way to Norwich and cancel or do a shit show because somebody’s wasted so we’re kind of dedicated in that sense.

Tell us about John Coulthard’s awesome cover artwork for ‘The Varangian Way’ album. How did that all come about?
We were kinda balling around with some ideas and I didn’t want what you’d expect, the nice painted image of warriors or skulls. It could have been full of clichés and conservative but we wanted something more graphical. So our A&R at Century Media put out a few links and stuff. The funny thing was we were sitting in the studio already thinking of about how we wanted the cover. We wanted something that included the journey and that, and the first draft sketches we did ourselves were of a ship coming out of the picture towards you and John Coulthard did his first sketches completely independently and came up with the same thing. When he sent them to us it was, like, yeah, this is probably gonna work.

How did you come to do a cover of Boney M’s ‘Rasputin’?
(Laughs) There’s this strange ferry that runs between Finland and Sweden or Finland and Estonia. It’s not that popular anymore and before the EU and the strong taxation stuff it was used to be that booze was actually cheaper when it was in open water, no man’s land, and people used to go there to buy cheap alcohol and get wasted. It was kind of like a floating discotheque, basically. I was in the bar on my way to Sweden back in 2000 or 2001 listening to this 70’s cover band playing Bee Gees and Abba and then they blasted Boney M’s Rasputin and it just struck me that this would work really well in a different format. But it still took a few years before we started playing it live and then it was such a success that we decided to record it.

Do you have any plans to cover any other songs?
Well, yes, there is some. But then we don’t want to end up being a covers jukebox band. We haven’t had time to fiddle around as we’ve had to concentrate on the priority stuff but when we find time to do something there are some ideas there.

Turisas, the Finnish god of war. Are you actually violent people at heart?
No, we are Princes! (Laughs all round) People expect you to be two metres tall and somehow the expectation from the stage appearance is so different that people don’t recognise us.

Actually, we watched some of you guys just go outside in front of the fans for a cigarette and we were like “nobody knows it’s them!”
In that way it’s not intentional, we don’t dress up to hide ourselves, but it is relaxing that we can go and, maybe, see the band playing their set before us or have a cigarette outside and take it easy. That’s quite cool.

How did you get the nickname, Warlord?
It’s probably something to do with me being in charge of most things with the band. Up until recently I’ve been doing everything from song-writing to management - I’m kind of, like, the mum of the band. I like to keep myself busy.

Your music is such an interesting mixture of genres. Where does it come from?
That’s hard to say. As a kid, I liked, Manowar, but we’re not, like, the updated version of that. I guess, heavy metal in general has a lot of these same elements as pompous classical music or music from, what I guess you’d call, the romantic period.

Do you listen then to a lot of classical music?
I listen to all sorts of music. I’m not a big metal-head at all. I’ll listen to metal but I also listen to pop. Everybody in the band has a broad taste in music and everybody has a slightly different musical background. Olli, of course, comes from a classically-trained and, then, jazz background - others from more of a heavy metal background.

Considering the drama you inject into your music are you really a thespian at heart?
I wouldn’t say I’m a really good actor or anything but I really appreciate all sorts of stage art, be it musicals or theatre. I used the perfect word for this recently. The word is ‘holistic’. I’m not sure if it translates directly into English, but it’s the belief that the particles that form something together are bigger than the value of the parts by themselves. It’s like combining the sound with visuals and everything coming together. I can get really bitchy when it’s not right because it has to fit with the concept behind the song. I’m really impressed when I go to see, say, opera or ballet or something, when all the stage settings can move in seconds. That’s really cool.

Have you ever thought of doing a film score or music for theatre?
That would be really cool. I’m somewhat bad, though, at working on demand. I usually get too personal with things and the perfectionism turns on and that can be a bad thing when you need to be productive. I don’t think I’d be able to keep up with things being just alright. I’d never be able to finish anything.

Any other influences?
There’s a lot of bullshit in heavy metal. I usually get ideas from something different. When you get the ‘wow’ moment it can be from anything. It might be a band or a book or something else that really impresses you. I’ve always had a hard time understanding when a band, especially jazz bands actually, records an album and somebody just puts their photograph on the cover. They don’t care about the cover it’s all about the music. To me when I go to a store and buy a the album it’s all about the moment when you take out the CD, flip through the booklet a bit, and all those visuals and music come together to form the full picture. I don’t even want to go into music videos! (Laughs) It might be distracting if something doesn’t fit which is why you have to work with graphic artists or something. I had really long discussions with John Coulthard about each song on the album so that when you hear the song and the image together it all fits. So instead of him just painting Viking ships, or whatever, he had to be really deeply involved and know what each song is about down beneath. Then he can paint a picture that can support that and so the final product is just the tip of the iceberg of the work that’s gone into it.

How was Hard Rock Hell in November?
It was fun. With all the full carpets and everything it reminded me a bit of the floating discotheque ferries I talked about. There was something really kitschy about the whole thing. People kept asking in interviews about what we thought of Minehead and Butlins and “isn’t it a bit weird?” but I think everyone who went secretly enjoyed the odd setting with the ‘Bob The Builder’ train-tracks and the miniature golf, the bowling and slot machines. So the show was really cool and the setting was really different from other festivals.

How has the tour been so far?
I’ve been told I have to cut down on all the blabbering I do on stage. I don’t think we’ve kept a gig curfew yet. When you actually hear the people outside, dressing up, chanting the name of the bands outside the doors, you know it’s going to be good and so far every show’s been a killer.

You included a karaoke version of ‘To Holmgard and Beyond’ on the recent extended version of the new album. You’re not afraid of going that extra step?
We could perform the same songs in many different ways. We could turn the lights on and sit on bar chairs and play the songs or we could dress up. I mean, they have face paint and spikes in the black metal scene but they always have to keep to their image whereas we can go on stage and have a real laugh about ourselves. It makes a real difference. We don’t want to be a comedy band or novelty act. In the studio we’re serious but on stage everybody’s there to have a good night out. Some of them won’t care about the historical concept or the images matching the music, they’re just want to have a few beers and have a good time. Nowadays, the record labels need you have to release these bonus tracks. The eight tracks on the album took us six months! It’s not like I’m going to write six more bonus tracks, we’re not able to do that, so we have to come up with different kind of material to do that bonus stuff. It’s too much work for just one of our tracks. It’s all the way or nothing with our music.

Your current takes you right around Europe. Where are you best received other than at home?
Probably, in the UK. It’s kind of different in Finland. A year ago nobody cared about us as metal is mainstream. When the album was released it was in the Top 40 album charts nine weeks in a row. The Finnish people take a lot of notice of what happens in the UK and when we got big here they got a bit jealous, I guess, and in the last year or so it’s really picked up back home too. Benelux is quite big as well. Germany is huge but you get smaller crowds so you can’t compare with the success we’ve had in the UK.

What music are you currently playing on the tour bus?
Shit! I think it was Abba last night which is not shit but there are not that many metal tracks. It’s been 80’s stuff on the playlist recently with the Norther guys taking care of the DJ-ing. They have that extra one and a half hours to get drunk so they are already having there party when we turn up. And we’re like “Where’s the beer?” That’s the negative side of headlining.

Can you direct me to the best shop for animal furs and Viking weapons so I can come better equipped for the next show?
For animal furs you will end up spending a lot of money and Viking swords you won’t get in, so I’d advise you to do as many of the kids seem to be doing and bring plastic axes and swords, use mummy’s make-up set and any fake fur you can find here and there.

Thanks very much, Mathias. Have a good show!
Thank you. Cheers.

Thanks to Sarah @ Century Media for helping set up the interview.

Also online @ Subba-Cultcha = http://www.subba-cultcha.com/features/article.php?contentID=12954