Dance Of Death / Iron Maiden (2003)

1. Wildest Dreams

2. Rainmaker

3. No More Lies

4. Montsegur

5. Dance Of Death

6. Gates Of Tomorrow

7. New Frontier

8. Paschendale

9. Face In The Sand

10. The Age Of Innocence

11. Journeyman

This album is another memorial one. The final concert of "Dance Of Death World Tour" was the first live show that I watched with my own eyes. I still remember that day. I just turned 18. That concert has two opening acts, Sonata Arctica and Arch Enemy. They were both great, but Iron Maiden totally ate them both. Their performance was more than exciting. It was fantastic!!

Anyways, that was enough for my story. I think this album was the real crucial moment for the band. Fans welcome last albums with open arms because of the return of Bruce and Adrian. Nevertheless, this album was the one that they had to prove themselves. This was the album they had to show the real ability, and they did it!! The arrangement of each song was more developed. I think it is due to the last tour they had. Three guitarists really united as a team.

1. Wildest Dreams

A catchy opening number. Another Adrian's rock song. It seems like writing an opening song became one of his assignment.

2. Rainmaker

It has a beautiful typical Dave melody. I always loved his songs such as "Dejavu" and "Judas Be My Guide" because he always write beautiful melody, and he did another one with this song. I was really happy to hear this song live because his songs were often not played at concert.

3. No More Lies

Typical (whenever I talk about Iron Maiden, I used this word a lot. I am using in good terms of course) Steve's song. Very progressive and dramatic.

4. Montsegur

A powerful metal tune. Bruce's vocal is outrageous. 

5. Dance Of Death

The title track. Very dramatic and beautiful. I still clearly remember that Janic, the main composer of the song, was dancing as he played the main melody of this song at concert. 

6. Gates Of Tomorrow

Starts with impressive riff. This is another good rock tune.

7. New Frontier

The first and the only song that was written by the drummer, Nicko Mcbrain. It has good progression in the middle. 

8. Paschendale

The tone and feeling of the album changes all sudden with this song. It has very unique intro riff. This is the first progressive song that Adrian Smith wrote. Usually, he writes more simple and straight-forward songs, but this was his first attempt to write a long song. The result was amazing! This song is very dark and dramatic. The song has good intonation between quiet parts and loud parts. This song was definitely one of the highlights in this album. You can picture the battle of war when you listen to this song.

9. Face In The Sand

Starts with beautiful and dramatic intro. This song was the first time that Nicko used double pedals (It is really unbelievable to see what he can do with one pedal!). 

10. The Age Of Innocence

This song has dark tone at the beginning and verses, but the song changes to major key and has chorus with bright tone.

11. Journeyman

Their first acoustic ballad. This song was originally played by electric guitars, but then they played with acoustic and recorded. I am very glad that they decided to use this version. The most beautiful and dramatic ballad they have ever written.

Every single song in this is amazing, and the album became impeccable. They proved that the band is still active and full of energy and magic!!

☆☆☆☆☆

St. Anger / Metallica (2003)

1. Frantic

2. St. Anger

3. Some Kin of Monster

4. Dirty Window

5. Invisible Kid

6. My World

7. Shoot Me Again

8. Sweet Amber

9. The Unnamed Feeling

10. Purify

11. All Within My Hands

 





When I heard the rumor that Metallica's next album would be fast and aggressive, I was really excited. I was not a big fan of "Load" and "ReLoard". Even though I admit the quality of the songs in those two albums, that was not really what I expected from this band, so I was hoping that they had gone back to their roots.

 

My first reaction of this album was like, ".....OK. I need to figure out what is happening." It was way beyond what I was expected. In fact, it was not anything like their past albums. Yes, it was fast and aggressive, but the sound production was really raw, guitars were down-tuned, songs were long and comlicated in different way from "Justice", and surprisingly all of the songs did not have Kirk's guitar solo!!

 

They mentioned in interviews that they had jammed to compose each song instead of James and Lars writing most as they had done in the past. Yes, I could see that. In fact, it almost sounded like they were still jamming and not going through arrangement process.

 

This album was a controversial and arguable piece. I saw a lot of negative reviews on internet. I can understand their opinions and agree most of the parts. However, I still admit the fact that I was very happy that they had played songs with aggression and power.

 

☆☆☆☆

Rabbit Don't Come Easy / Helloween (2003)

1. Just A Little Sign

2. Open Your Life

3. The Tune

4. Never Be A Star

5. Liar

6. Sun 4 The World

7. Don't Stop Being Crazy

8. Do You Feel Good

9. Hell Was Made In Heaven

10. Back Against The Wall

11. Listen To Flies

12. Nothing To Say

"The Dark Ride" was a chaotic album musically and created a huge split in the band. After the tour, Roland and Uli were fired and formed "Masterplan". Many people were wondering what would await this band. When they returned, I was wondering what kind of music direction they would head to. Weiki emphasized about returning to their root and the music that fans were expecting of this band.

When I first heard the lead single, track 1, I thought it was fairly good. I felt the positive energy from the song. What surprised me was that the song was written by Andi. It has been Weiki's job (not intentionally, I think) to write  typical Helloween style power metal songs until the last album. It really shows that Andi is truly the member of this band and one who carries DNA of Helloween. Andi's name is credited in 7 songs in this album. It is really impressive how many ideas he has. 

Overall, I think the album is fairly good. The new guitarist Sascha already has shown his composition skill in this album. He become one of the important pillar of this band. This album was also that Markus started his talent as a songwriter. Track 9 was played on their later tour. Nevertheless, the album is not very exciting in their standard. If this album was released by a new band, it would be really impressive, but I want to expect more from Helloween since they are the pioneer of melodic power metal. 

☆☆☆☆

Delirium Veil / Twilightning (2003)

1. Gone To The Wall

2. At The Forge

3. Jester Realm

4. Delirium Veil

5. Return To Innocence

6. Under Somber Skies

7. Seventh Dawn

8. Enslaved To The Mind

9. Masked Ball Dalliance

10. The Escapist (Japanese Release Only)

11. Affection Seeker (Japanese Release Only)

There are many bands that I love. But, there have been only few bands that gave me “shock.” One of such bands was this, Twilightning. Unfortunately, this band broke up with three full-length albums and one EP. I am really hoping that these guys will come back in the scene together. When I listened to their music for the first time, I thought I had some electric shock or was struck by thunder.

This band is probably categorized as Power Metal. However, its music style is not just typical power metal. All songs have unique riffs, and its progression changes such unexpected ways. It is really hard to describe with words. Every song changes and progresses its form in very unique ways. Even though, it’s categorized as a power metal band, there are only two typical fast power metal songs. Most songs are either mid-tempo or high mid. Nevertheless, you never get bored because of their excellent song writing skill.

They were also very skilled musicians for new comers. The twin lead guitar in the intro of Track 2 gave me goose bumps. I still remember that well. This band definitely did not receive recognition and fame they deserved. I hope the market, audience, and metal fans will open larger space for future new comers with great skill and talent like this band.

☆☆☆☆☆

Masteplan / Masterplan (2003)

1. Spirit Never Die

2. Kind Hearted Light

3. Soulburn

4. Heroes (Feat. Michael Kiske)

5. Into The Light

6. Through Thick And Thin (Bonus Track)

7. Crawling From Hell

8. Crystal Night

9. The Kid Rocks On (Bonus Track)

10. Sail On

11. When Love Comes Close

After they were fired from their old band, Roland and Uli formed their own band, Masterplan. I was really curious what kind of music that they were heading. Weiki claimed that Roland and Uli had a lot of influence in their last album, "The Dark Ride". They wanted to play some heavy and modern music. Well, this is the answer from them. I was really surprised by this album. The vocal, Jorn Lande, is definitely the one making this album very unique and not a typical power metal band. He has really strong and deep voice, often describe as David Coverdale type. In fact, in some songs, he really sounds like Coverdale. 

As you see, the track list is Japanese edition and very different from other places. "Enlighten Me" was only released as a single and not included in the album. The order is very different as well. Musically, it has some typical power metal songs such as Tracks 1, 2, 4, and 10. Especially, track 4 which features Michael Kiske is a highlight of this album. Nevertheless, the ones that make this band unique are the songs such as tracks 3, 5, 6, and 11. Those songs are very dramatic and really feature Jorn's voice. Another surprise for me was Roland's guitar play. He was known as a one of Yngwie's follower, but his guitar play in this album shows more standard rock/metal influence. When I watched their live, he was playing Les-Paul guitars. 

As a conclusion, it was a high quality metal album. I think this band appeals to not only power metal fans but also metal fans in general. The album shows their guts to overcome the tragedy and hope for the future. It is really ironic, but two departures of important members from Helloween created another two great metal bands, Gamma Ray and Masterplan.

☆☆☆☆

Fallen / Evanescence (2003)

1. Going Under

2. Bring Me To Life

3. Everybody's Fool

4. My Immortal

5. Haunted

6. Tourniquet

7. Imaginary

8. Taking Over Me

9. Hello

10. My Last Breath

11. Whisper

12. Farther Away (Bonus Track)

Year 2003 was a good harvest of rock albums. It is really hard to say which one of them was the best album of 2003. However, I can say which one of them was the most shocking and sensational album of the year for me. This record had the biggest impact in that year. There were several reasons for it. The first reason is the quality of melodies in this album. It is really dark yet very dramatic and moving. The second reason was that this band was from America, and the last reason was that the album became a huge hit in America.

The music is comparable with some European bands. Each song has dramatic arrangement. Melody is sad, longing, and very moving. It has some common essence with symphonic metal bands. I never thought that this kind of music would be so big in America. From the first song, the band shows its own unique world. It has power to attract listeners immediately and never let go. Track 2 was used as a soundtrack for the movie "Daredevil". Two ballads are really moving, and track 4 became a huge hit on radio. Nevertheless, I personally the best track in this album is track 7. This track is very progressive yet not complicated. The arrangement is very dramatic and modulated. 

Amy Lee's voice is very clear and powerful. Ben's riffs have strong edge. They were both great composers. The album did not let me go until the very last song. It is really hard to believe that this album is their major debut album.

☆☆☆☆☆

Valley of the Damned / DragonForce (2003)

1. Invocation of the Apocalyptic Evil

2. Valley of the Damned

3. Black Fire

4. Black Winter Night

5. Starfire

6. Disciples of Babylon

7. Revelations

8. Evening Star

9. Heart of a Dragon

10. When Dragon Rule

I still clearly remember the first time I listened to this band. I heard track 2 from the radio. I do not say this band was the best new comer of 2003 but surely had the biggest impact to me that year. Their music style is a mix of blast beat like death metal with high tone vocal. They really stuck with speed. I thought some one would have done this kind of music, but actually no one had. They were definitely one of the most unique metal bands from debut. Except the ballad, track 5, they showed their excessive determination to speed. It is not only drum beat but also, guitar solo and keyboard solo as well.

To be honest, I thought their music was unrefined at that time. The vocal is not strong enough. Some drum parts are not steady. The guitarists are surely skillful, but the sound production is not great. Another factor that makes this band unique is long instrumental parts. Out of 10 songs, 5 of them go beyond 6 minutes. Some of the song progression and arrangements are not very refined, yet they showed good songwriting abilities. They have a lot of cool riffs and twin lead. I could tell that those two guitarists were good teammates. This debut album was something made me expect of something greater with the next album.

☆☆☆