There’s been no shortage of 80’s NWOBHM acts coming back from the grave this year, and that’s just across my desk. I wonder whether Andy Sneap realised what he was starting when he resurrected Hell a few years ago, as ever since there has been a positive deluge of such resuscitations – some more successful than others. Tokyo Blade are another act I was aware of by name back in the day, but had never actually engaged with - which is probably not surprising given the whirlwind of line up, name and label changes that plagued them in their early period, so I am forced to base my thoughts entirely on the music presented right here and right now. This is no bad thing, as Dark Revolution is nothing short of brilliant.
Crashing in with the confidently in your face Story Of A Nobody, this is balls-deep top-notch NWOBHM. The sound is rich, fat and crunchy, like a succulent piece of pork crackling, with bouncy rhythm lines from the back of the room which rattle your epiglottis, solid galloping twin-guitar riffery and lovely solo interplay between the axes of Andy Boulton and John Wiggins without any need for showing off and a distinctive and strong vocal presence from Alan Marsh. And it doesn’t let up from then on for the 11 tracks and nearly full hour of running time – not dragging at any point.
My personal favourite is The Fastest Gun In Town, which is pure and brilliant NWOBHM throughout it’s 4’23” running time, with a catchy chorus and spot on musical interplay. Take the best production and structuring of early Priest, mix in the guitar interplay of Maiden, with some of the pop-sensibilities of Def Leppard and you have the keystones of where these guys are coming from, but this is a band with a modern sound and energy, not a stuck in the past nostalgic wave in danger of becoming their own tribute band. Tokyo Blade are absolutely relevant right here, right now. This feels like a full on comeback album from a band who never quite arrived and definitely never went away, but who really deserve a proper audience. 9/10
Asking Alexandria: Like A House On Fire (Sumerian Records) [Liam True]
Evolution in bands has always been a discussion point. Like Metallica’s leap from ...And Justice For All to The Black Album and Bring Me The Horizons massive change with Amo, musical changes in bands are hit and miss and have to be executed perfectly. But you’ll always have the arguments about their ‘Original style’. Asking Alexandria have already made their change on their previous self-titled album released in 2017, but Like A House On Fire cemented the changes they’ve made. While musically going for a more, and I hate this phrase, radio friendly approach, it doesn’t mean they still haven’t got the heart they had when they made Stand Up And Scream or even Reckless & Relentless. Their Heart, passion and soul is still there, they’re just not the same people who did at. In fact, I'd argue that (Trigger warning for those scene kids) LAHOF is better than SUAS in both the lyrical and musical context.
LAHOF presents the new chapter of their career, where the band is going for a more headlining status and chorus’ on their sixth studio album (Five if you don’t count The Black, like I don’t). From the opener and title track, showcase their ability to create catchy chorus’ and prove that vocalist Danny Worsnop has a more powerful voice than on previous records, he doesn’t stray from his old roots with the harsh vocals. While not prominent they make their appearances over the album in the perfect places bringing a more balanced approach to his ability to sing. I Don’t Need You shows the band has a softer side, with the guest vocals of Grace Grundy, unlike Moving On from, From Death To Destiny, it’s a more ambient approach. From then on, the album proves they have more hooks and chorus’ than you can come up in a lifetime. It switches genres throughout, going from Hard Rock, to Electronicore to Stadium Rock. It doesn’t matter how you look at it, their change is one of the best changes of a band I've heard.
Asking Alexandria are one of my favorite bands of all time, and when a band evolves and changes their sound, I usually hate it (BMTH is a perfect example) but on LAHOF, they’re more mature, grown up and have shown a side they never have. The ability to make a strong album for the older fans and to gain new fans. This is as far from SUAS than you can get, but I find it to be a more enjoyable listen. I’m speaking for myself, but I can’t wait to see this band play the new songs. 8/10
Kardashev: The Baring Of Shadows (Self Released) [Lee Burnell]
Progressive Death Metallers Kardashev follow up 2017s The Almanac with new EP, The Baring Of Shadows. By their own admission, they believe metal can be beautiful as well as brutal and A Frame. A Light encompasses both. Immediately, you’re hit by chilling melodies and haunting lyrics detailing guilt for not noticing pain that led to suicide. The way the song portrays heavy subject matter into music by taking you through an emotional journey of beauty and loss is astounding. Seamless transitions and melodies that heavily remind me of Devin Townsend keep the song going to a point where it’s easy to forget that 8 minutes have passed but that’s ok because all 8 minutes were just elegant and brutal. Snow-Sleep turns the metal up a gear and strides away from the soft, melody of the Doom side of metal and increases the pace ten-fold as the intro blends black metal and doom to produce something fierce.
My personal favourite is The Fastest Gun In Town, which is pure and brilliant NWOBHM throughout it’s 4’23” running time, with a catchy chorus and spot on musical interplay. Take the best production and structuring of early Priest, mix in the guitar interplay of Maiden, with some of the pop-sensibilities of Def Leppard and you have the keystones of where these guys are coming from, but this is a band with a modern sound and energy, not a stuck in the past nostalgic wave in danger of becoming their own tribute band. Tokyo Blade are absolutely relevant right here, right now. This feels like a full on comeback album from a band who never quite arrived and definitely never went away, but who really deserve a proper audience. 9/10
Asking Alexandria: Like A House On Fire (Sumerian Records) [Liam True]
Evolution in bands has always been a discussion point. Like Metallica’s leap from ...And Justice For All to The Black Album and Bring Me The Horizons massive change with Amo, musical changes in bands are hit and miss and have to be executed perfectly. But you’ll always have the arguments about their ‘Original style’. Asking Alexandria have already made their change on their previous self-titled album released in 2017, but Like A House On Fire cemented the changes they’ve made. While musically going for a more, and I hate this phrase, radio friendly approach, it doesn’t mean they still haven’t got the heart they had when they made Stand Up And Scream or even Reckless & Relentless. Their Heart, passion and soul is still there, they’re just not the same people who did at. In fact, I'd argue that (Trigger warning for those scene kids) LAHOF is better than SUAS in both the lyrical and musical context.
LAHOF presents the new chapter of their career, where the band is going for a more headlining status and chorus’ on their sixth studio album (Five if you don’t count The Black, like I don’t). From the opener and title track, showcase their ability to create catchy chorus’ and prove that vocalist Danny Worsnop has a more powerful voice than on previous records, he doesn’t stray from his old roots with the harsh vocals. While not prominent they make their appearances over the album in the perfect places bringing a more balanced approach to his ability to sing. I Don’t Need You shows the band has a softer side, with the guest vocals of Grace Grundy, unlike Moving On from, From Death To Destiny, it’s a more ambient approach. From then on, the album proves they have more hooks and chorus’ than you can come up in a lifetime. It switches genres throughout, going from Hard Rock, to Electronicore to Stadium Rock. It doesn’t matter how you look at it, their change is one of the best changes of a band I've heard.
Asking Alexandria are one of my favorite bands of all time, and when a band evolves and changes their sound, I usually hate it (BMTH is a perfect example) but on LAHOF, they’re more mature, grown up and have shown a side they never have. The ability to make a strong album for the older fans and to gain new fans. This is as far from SUAS than you can get, but I find it to be a more enjoyable listen. I’m speaking for myself, but I can’t wait to see this band play the new songs. 8/10
Kardashev: The Baring Of Shadows (Self Released) [Lee Burnell]
Progressive Death Metallers Kardashev follow up 2017s The Almanac with new EP, The Baring Of Shadows. By their own admission, they believe metal can be beautiful as well as brutal and A Frame. A Light encompasses both. Immediately, you’re hit by chilling melodies and haunting lyrics detailing guilt for not noticing pain that led to suicide. The way the song portrays heavy subject matter into music by taking you through an emotional journey of beauty and loss is astounding. Seamless transitions and melodies that heavily remind me of Devin Townsend keep the song going to a point where it’s easy to forget that 8 minutes have passed but that’s ok because all 8 minutes were just elegant and brutal. Snow-Sleep turns the metal up a gear and strides away from the soft, melody of the Doom side of metal and increases the pace ten-fold as the intro blends black metal and doom to produce something fierce.
Again, I can’t be helped but be drawn to the lyrics, the tone is still bleak and otherworldly but instils a sense of self-reflection. Half way through the EP and Nico Mirolla, Mark Garrett, Alexander Auden Rieth and Sean Long are just doing a phenomenal job of masking heavy subject matter with beautiful melodies between Sean’s brutal technical drumming and Nico’s contradicting guitaring coupled with Mark’s clean and dirty vocals. Torch passing starts off similar to an Alcest song (think of Eclosion from the album Kodama). Progressive Death Metal bands have a way of interesting me to find out more about the lyrical side of their material. Kardashev haven’t done this for every song but if you go to https://Kardashev.bandcamp.com and look into the songs individually from this EP, they give a scenario of the inspiration behind the lyrics and to give you a sense of the tone set, this is from Torchpassing:
"An adult holds their parent in their arms while they die in hospice. The emotionally accept this death, and 'give permission' to their parent to die as a way to cope with their loss". This is so emotionally hard hitting and you can absolutely feel it in the vocals, the guitar, the bass and the drumming that absolutely everything is poured into this.
Finally we have Heartache which is the shortest track on the EP but definitely the fastest. The pacing of the song truly stands out here as you can work your way through a range of emotion by listening to the growls, coupled with the methodical chugging of the guitar and the variant speed of the drumming. You get a sense of anger, through to grief and back again - a real emotional rollercoaster of an EP in general. All in all, this was a fantastic follow up to The Almanac - infusing what makes this band beautiful and emotive but turning it up a notch and creating this amazing EP. Definitely a band to keep an eye out for, for fans of Fallujah and Aegaeon. 9/10
Champlin Williams Friestedt: II (Black Lodge Records) [Alex Swift]
Album oriented rock – I always thought it was adult-oriented rock until I was told otherwise (Thanks Mr. Editor!). Then I became confused by the name of the genre. Wait, album-oriented? I’ve only ever heard singles from AOR bands. Turns out that the genre is designed to be radio-friendly, to tailor albums with more commercial appeal, from start to finish. How’s that going for you Chesney Hawkes and REO Speedwagon? (Selling out stadia in the USA - Ed). Snarkiness aside, despite being designed to be inoffensive and safe, the genre is not all bad – acts in the vein of Toto and Chicago have actually produced albums which despite courting a commercial format, are pleasant enough listen. As luck would dictate, Champlin Williams Friestedt is a collaboration between TOTO singer Joseph Williams, Chicago vocalist Bill Champlin and Swedish guitarist/Producer Peter Freistedt. There’s’ certainly talent on display here, even if I am not really excited by the collaboration. So, what did we get with 2?
Well, this is definitely AOR. From the opening notes of Runaway Dancer, the guitars cascade smoothly yet with just enough fuzz on display to lend a crisp and motivating sound. It might have been a playing style perfected by Van Halen yet it is one radio rock has adopted and ran with. Williams’ vocals are in very good shape and he hits some impressive highs. Friestedt's soaring guitar musings are quite inspiring, proving one of the finest elements throughout. A key criticism though is that the chorus and verse melodies are not very well fleshed out, which is a problem in this genre. It doesn’t hurt the fast tracks such as Disguise and All That I Want as much, where the instrumentation is engaging enough to distract from the inconsistent writing, yet slower tracks in the vein of 10 Miles and The Love In The World really suffer from a lack of grandiosity – and, as you’d expect, there’s a lot of ballads. Thankfully, the production is fantastic, with the little embellishments – a synth twinkle here, a strange percussive effect there – lending a magical spark.
Overall, the definitive question is would I listen to II again? Well considering I rarely listen to the associated acts past the singles, the answer has to be a definitive ‘no’. That doesn’t mean it’s not an enjoyable experience in listening. There's plenty of elements I find generic and pastiche, yet there are others that are life-affirming and optimistic. In that sense, I’m lukewarm yet not in a negative way. 6/10
Champlin Williams Friestedt: II (Black Lodge Records) [Alex Swift]
Album oriented rock – I always thought it was adult-oriented rock until I was told otherwise (Thanks Mr. Editor!). Then I became confused by the name of the genre. Wait, album-oriented? I’ve only ever heard singles from AOR bands. Turns out that the genre is designed to be radio-friendly, to tailor albums with more commercial appeal, from start to finish. How’s that going for you Chesney Hawkes and REO Speedwagon? (Selling out stadia in the USA - Ed). Snarkiness aside, despite being designed to be inoffensive and safe, the genre is not all bad – acts in the vein of Toto and Chicago have actually produced albums which despite courting a commercial format, are pleasant enough listen. As luck would dictate, Champlin Williams Friestedt is a collaboration between TOTO singer Joseph Williams, Chicago vocalist Bill Champlin and Swedish guitarist/Producer Peter Freistedt. There’s’ certainly talent on display here, even if I am not really excited by the collaboration. So, what did we get with 2?
Well, this is definitely AOR. From the opening notes of Runaway Dancer, the guitars cascade smoothly yet with just enough fuzz on display to lend a crisp and motivating sound. It might have been a playing style perfected by Van Halen yet it is one radio rock has adopted and ran with. Williams’ vocals are in very good shape and he hits some impressive highs. Friestedt's soaring guitar musings are quite inspiring, proving one of the finest elements throughout. A key criticism though is that the chorus and verse melodies are not very well fleshed out, which is a problem in this genre. It doesn’t hurt the fast tracks such as Disguise and All That I Want as much, where the instrumentation is engaging enough to distract from the inconsistent writing, yet slower tracks in the vein of 10 Miles and The Love In The World really suffer from a lack of grandiosity – and, as you’d expect, there’s a lot of ballads. Thankfully, the production is fantastic, with the little embellishments – a synth twinkle here, a strange percussive effect there – lending a magical spark.
Overall, the definitive question is would I listen to II again? Well considering I rarely listen to the associated acts past the singles, the answer has to be a definitive ‘no’. That doesn’t mean it’s not an enjoyable experience in listening. There's plenty of elements I find generic and pastiche, yet there are others that are life-affirming and optimistic. In that sense, I’m lukewarm yet not in a negative way. 6/10
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