TesseracT - P O R T A L S (Kscope) [Matt Bladen]
The original concept for P O R T A L S was to be a live cinematic, the prog metal mastery of the band shown through some of their most well known songs, with an evocative lighting, visual effects and a screenplay to make it more than just a concert stream, but a fully fledged musical journey, TesseracT themselves taking their performance to another level. With songs from their entire career, the obvious tracks such as all three parts of Concealing Fate running at over 18 minutes, along with Of Matter and Of Energy amongst many others. As there is a screenplay behind this performance, the songs are structured in a way to carry the story forward while also showing those who have not seen TesseracT evolve into the band they are now. The album obviously loses some of the intent from the P O R T A L S video release as this is just the audio portion, but it is the sound of a perfectly honed unit pulling out diamonds from their discography and delivering them with precision and passion.
The original concept for P O R T A L S was to be a live cinematic, the prog metal mastery of the band shown through some of their most well known songs, with an evocative lighting, visual effects and a screenplay to make it more than just a concert stream, but a fully fledged musical journey, TesseracT themselves taking their performance to another level. With songs from their entire career, the obvious tracks such as all three parts of Concealing Fate running at over 18 minutes, along with Of Matter and Of Energy amongst many others. As there is a screenplay behind this performance, the songs are structured in a way to carry the story forward while also showing those who have not seen TesseracT evolve into the band they are now. The album obviously loses some of the intent from the P O R T A L S video release as this is just the audio portion, but it is the sound of a perfectly honed unit pulling out diamonds from their discography and delivering them with precision and passion.
The band have stated that the pandemic allowed them to focus on the next stage of their evolution, of which this project is the beginning of, it made them understand what TesseracT could be going forward, thus making this retrospective setlist the go to. As it's a stream that was pre-recorded, you can't call it a live album, so what this record is a compilation that serves as an ideal intro to TesseracT but also signals the next part of their journey as a band. Alec "Acle" Kahney (lead guitar), Jay Postones (drums), James 'Metal' Monteith (rhythm guitar), Amos Williams (bass/growls) and Daniel Tompkins (vocals) have redefined the livestream show with P O R T A L S creating a musical historical document of their success so far. 8/10
White Stones - Dancing Into Oblivion (Nuclear Blast) [Matt Bladen]
White Stones debut album Kuarahy was Opeth bassist Martin Mendez paying homage to his history in death metal bands but also his Latin heritage. That album had a lot of South American and Swedish flavours sitting between Sepultura and Opeth musically. Because of the global pandemic, they were unable to promote and tour their debut release. But Mendez has managed to create another White Stones album in the numerous lockdowns moving the sound more towards the intense progressive complexity of bands such as Death as the riffs hit harder in odd time signatures Mendez saying that Dancing Into Oblivion was inspired by lots of jazz artists such as John Coltrane, Chain Of Command featuring the first taste of this increased level of technicality.
It sounds a lot like Mendez' day job, with an early-Opeth atmosphere. Mendez handles all the guitar and bass here, his dexterity abound on numbers such as Iron Titans and Woven Dreams where drummer Joan Carles Marí Tur brings an expressive style of percussion. These two tracks are the most jazz influenced of the album making for a great intermezzo that leads into the most technical songs on the record, Mendez's riffs shifting between melodic and heavy, Eloi Boucherie, adding his aggressive growls to the whole album. As Joao Sasseti providing the solo guitars from his home in Portugal but you can't hear the join as the rest of the band recorded in Barcelona, this is to make sure the whole album sounds organic, which it does, the band trying hard to keep it as close to the studio sessions as possible. Dancing Into Oblivion furthers the exploration of Martin Mendez's solo project, he is now armed with two albums in two defined styles ready to unleash upon the metal audience. 8/10
One of my gateway bands to all this wonderful skiffle music I have been listening to since the mid 1980’s was Hanoi Rocks. By the time I came across them, they were already no longer a thing having melted away after the tragic and utterly stupid death of drummer Razzle at the hands of Vince Neil in L.A. in 1985. Yaffa was a part of that period, but like most of the band took a back seat to the egos and presence of Andy McCoy and charismatic frontman Michael Monroe, with who Yaffa still works. He’s been busy in between as well, with time spent with Joan Jett and The New York Dolls, so this solo album has been a long time coming.
Yaffa takes both bass and vocal duties on the album and has a surprisingly good Rock’n’Roll and Bluesy sounding voice that plays best to the more Hard Rock and slightly Sleazy tracks on here. The music in general is straight R’n’R, with a good dose of Punk attitude, but it does experiment a fair amount as well. Personally the tracks where Yaffa sticks to his roots work best, with Selling Me Shit capturing that ethos best, despite the unexpected Reggae instrumental section curveball. There’s more of that groove later on with Rotten Roots too. The slower paced balladic Down At St. Joes shows him in a more pensive mood, but his raw voice really works best with the more emphatic tracks. Single Last Time is probably the strongest track on here by a country mile, as it takes the mood down a tone or two and is a much darker and sombre piece of music than anything else on here.
The material on here has been percolating for a number of years, which explains the breadth of music styles in here. In general the more pacey songs work the best, but this does demonstrate a good range of styles, although if you are looking for the energy, pace and sheer buzz of his earliest work you may be disappointed. 6/10
Lady Beast – Omens (Reaper Metal Productions) [Simon Black]
Nothing beats a good old fashioned bit of proper Heavy Metal, especially when it’s done properly. Lady Beast deliver that very traditional early NWOBHM era (and earlier) Metal rather well. With three full albums already under their belt, this five track EP is the first time I’ve come across them. Deborah Levine’s vocals are clear, striking and sit very high in the mix. As they should, she’s got a powerful and richly timbre voice that deserves your attention.
The rest of the band by comparison, apart from the occasional solo break, feel that little too far in the background in a mix that really lets down what the music is trying to do. There’s a fashion of the moment to try and make these more retro influenced bands sound like they were recorded on analogue technology of forty years ago and personally it annoys the hell out of me, especially when you consider most of the classics from that era are constantly remixing and remastering to try and improve on their early efforts. The consequence sometimes is a flat and insipid sound and this disk unfortunately suffers quite badly from this, which is a shame as the songs and performances deserve way better.
Musically the weakest track The Poisoned Path is bizarrely up first, but if you jump to Reaper, you get a high octane HM belter worthy of the band. It’s probably the best song on here and has you hooked after the opening bars. Blood For Blood keeps the energy and tempo going nicely before the EP drops into a well delivered, if slightly trebly sounding Speed Metal cover version of Rainbow’s Kill The King. It’s probably the clearest statement of the band’s influences and works well especially as Levine sounds nothing like Dio, but delivers a performance worthy of her range and skill. The Fool's Journey closes things out well with the same energy and drive and apart from that weaker opening song I’m left with a feeling that this is a band who know how to write and deliver a good track, but that they should really think again when it comes to the engineering, production and mixing. 6/10
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