Dark Horse / Nickelback (2008)

1. Something In Your Mouth

2. Burn It To The Ground

3. Gotta Be Somebody

4. I'd Come For You

5. Next Go Round

6. Just To Get High

7. Never Gonna Be Alone

8. Shakin' Hands

9. S.E.X.

10. If Today Was Your Last Day

11. This Afternoon

I knew this band for a long time, but I never bought their album. I knew they were very famous. Some of my friends recommended me this band, and I tried to listen to some of there songs but was not attracted by them. I don't remember all of the songs that I listened. But, I know that I listened to "How You Remind Me" and "Hero". I thought they were cool songs but did not make me buy album until I heard track 3 of this album. When I heard that for the first time, I just posed for a moment. The sound was pretty heavy. Well, I want to call it massive. The sound production was massive, but the song really took my attention. That was the "first" time that I met this band. Now, I have their past catalogues as well, but this album was the first album I bought.

As I mentioned before, this album is massive. The sound production is really big. When I saw the producer's name, it made sense. The producer of this album was Mutt Lange who was known for producing Def Leppard and AC/DC. He is the one who produced the "big sound" of Def Leppard. He did a great job on this album as well. The sound production is "massive" and "big". Nevertheless, the essence which makes this band unique is melody. Melody lines are sometimes powerful, lyrical, sad, moving, and catchy. The music ranges from heavy rock/metal to reggae. The variety is another reason that makes this band different from other heavy rock/metal band.

I don't get attracted by most of the recent rock bands. Because many of them are not riff-oriented. Maybe that bothers me a lot because I play the guitar. Great rock bands always came up with great riffs. One thing really made me excited about this album was that it contained many cool riffs. I can see they are pretty talented as musicians and composers.

I also like lyrics of some songs such as 7 & 10. They write many songs that make you think about life and and important things in our lives. Some musician sing just party songs and cheap love songs (which these guys also do often lol), but this band has opinions and messages to speak up to the world. I really like bands that write songs with good messages. This album was an excellent discovery for me.

☆☆☆☆☆

Perpetual Flame / Yngwie J. Masmsteen's Rising Force (2008)

1. Death Dealer

2. Damnation Game

3. Live To Fight (Another Day)

4. Red Devil

5. Priest Of The Unholy

6. Be Careful What You Wish For

7. Caprici Di Diablo

8. Lament

9. Magic City

10. Eleventh Hour

11. Heavy Heart

When I first listened to the album, "Maching Out", it was truly sensational. The music and guitar playing did not sound like any other metal bands. He was the one and the only. "The Seventh Sign" is one of the greatest masterpiece in the metal history. Songs were very sometimes emotional, sometimes strong, and dramatic. However, after "The Seventh Sign", I did not meet any albums that were equivalent to those two albums.

When I heard the news that Tim "Ripper" Owens joined Yngwie, like many others, I was a bit suspicious about the choice. I knew from Judas Priest and Iced Earth. For sure, he is a great singer. He is one of the greatest metal singers with great powerful voice. Nevertheless, I did not think that his voice would match with Yngwie's style, Neo-Classical Metal. His voice matches better with strong straightforward heavy metal music rather than dramatic and emotional music.

As I listened to the album, it was not as mismatch as I thought it would be. Actually, it was very cool. I think his music direction became a bit more straight metal now, and that might be the reason why. There are some parts that I heard that some of previous singers might be better fit, but Tim Owens did great job in this album. Moreover, Yngwie's songwriting is outstanding comparing with last few albums. Particularly the first 4 songs ran through quickly. These songs are comparable to some of his classics.

I am not saying this album is as good as "Marching Out" or "The Seventh Sign". However, I was happy that he still showed the fact that he is the one and the only Yngwie Malmsteen today!

☆☆☆☆

Death Magnetic / Metallica (2008)

1. That Was Just Your Life

2. The End of the Line

3. Broken, Beat & Scarred

4. The Day That Never Comes

5. All Nightmare Long

6. Cyanide

7. The Unforgiven III

8. The Judas Kiss

9. Suicide & Redemption

10. My Apocalypse

 

This is a strong, solid, and well-composed Metallica album. Even though I liked the aggressive direction of "St. Anger", it was not comparable to their classic catalogues. The composition and arrangement of this album is well-done. Metallica showed the world that they still could write awesome metal songs.

 

However, the first thing that caught my attention was the sound production. It sounded really oppressed and bothered me as I went trough the entire album, so it took me a while to pay attention to what was really going on in each song.

 

I don't call this album "thrash metal" even though most riffs are very aggressive and fast. I hear some riffs that are comparable to their 80's era, some that are influenced by more recent music, and some that sound like 70's hard rock.

 

One of the best thing that I liked about this album is that they put songs in order that they used in 80's. I am pretty sure they did on purpose. Track 4 was another surprise for me. It is a ballad that is relevant to songs such as "Fade to Black" and "Welcome Home".

 

I would love to give 5 stars, but the sound production bothers me every time I listen to this...

 

☆☆☆☆

Ultra Beatdown / DragonForce (2008)

1. Heroes of Out Time

2. The Fire Still Burns

3. Reasons to Live

4. Heartbreak Armageddon

5. The Last Journey Home

6. A Flame for Freedom

7. Inside the Winter Storm

8. The Warrior Inside

9. Strike of the Ninja

10. Scars of Yesterday

The last album became a huge success for the band, and they toured all over the world. Their music style was very refined, and I was wondering what kind of move they were going to make next. When I heard the lead single, track 1, it seemed like they kept their musical style. It was not surprise. I thought the album would be kind of redundant of their past records. However, I must admit that I was far wrong. The album had variety of songs.

Track 1 is a typical DragonForce song. It has all of the band's essence. It has speed, blast beat, twin guitars, fast solos, catchy chorus, and dramatic song progression. Track 2 is another cool song. The first surprise for me was track 3. First, I thought it was another typical DragonForce song. Nevertheless, the middle part of the song was very different from the past. They always had long instrumental parts, but this one was way different. It has a lot of rhythm change and complicated progression. It is almost sounded like progressive metal. The second surprised was track 5. It is an up-tempo tune, yet this song was very slow for the band lol Of course, this song has fast parts. Their song always has been long, but this one is almost progressive. It is very dramatic, and I think this song is the highlight of the album. The last one is track 9. This song also became one of my favorites. It has catchy twin lead guitars and chorus. This song is very fast for other bands yet pretty slow for this band lol However, this is another great song.

The variety in rhythm and tempo created good undulation in the album, and the band found new ability in their music. They are still enthusiastic to challenge themselves musically.  This album does not have as big impact as the last album but has better total quality.

☆☆☆☆☆

Nostradamus / Judas Priest (2008)

Disc 1

1. Dawn of Creation

2. Prophecy

3. Awakening

4. Revelations

5. The Four Horsemen

6. War

7. Sands of Time

8. Pestilence and Plague

9. Death

10. Peace

11. Conquest

12. Lost Love

13. Persecution

Disc 2

14. Solitude

15. Exiled

16. Alone

17. Shadows In the Flame

18. Visions

19. Hope

20. New Beginnings

21. Calm Before the Storm

22. Nostradamus

23. Future of Mankind

I have never made a comment on this album up to this point. The reason was that I did not know how to put this album down in the catalogue of Judas Priest. "Turbo" was a controversial album for innovating synthesizer in metal. I would say this album was controversial but was on a completely different degree. "Turbo" is not even comparable with this record. This is their first concept album. The album structure was not usual. About a half of the songs were preludes and not full length songs. The music style was not typical heavy metal. It was just completely different from their past catalogues. Therefore, I did not know how to comprehend this record. Well, it has been more than 4 years, and I think I can listen to this album more objectively.

As I listened to the whole album once again today, I was surprised by the quality of arrangement of this album. Speaking of "Turbo", you can hear synthesizer and keyboard throughout the entire album. They turned more pop with "Turbo", but they used them to make symphonic sound and magnificent scale. When I first listened to this album for the first time, I could not believe that this was Judas Priest's album. It sounded so strange. Nevertheless, I realized that there was more Judas Priest essence in this record. For example, in the guitar solo of track 2, you can hear the guitar battle of K.K. and Glenn. Track 8 has a great minor melody. It is one of the best melody written by Rob Halford. This song can be in the second half of "Painkiller". Track 12 is a beautiful ballad. They also showed aggressive side of heavy metal music. Track 13 reminded me of "Night Crawler". Track 22 is the fastest number in this album. It starts with magnificent intro, and then the song becomes aggressive with Rob's high tone scream. The last song, track 23, is a dramatic number and suits as the end.

As I listened to this album today, I was surprised by the quality of this album. Even though there are 23 songs, I did not think that they made unnecessary additions. Each song has good melody line. The attempt of using synthesizer was very successful. It did not sound a thin veneer. It was much better than some cheap symphonic metal bands. If you ask me if this was the album that I expect from Judas Priest, I would say "No". This is definitely not what metal fans expect. This is not typical Judas Priest, yet I would like to evaluate their challenging spirit, musicianship and quality they brought in this album. I heard that they were going to release an album in 2013. I would like to expect them of "THIS IS THE METAL ALBUM" this time.

☆☆☆

Revelation / Journey (2008)

1. Never Walk Away

2. Like A Sunshower

3. Change For The Better

4. Wildest Dream

5. Faith In The Heartland

6. After All These Years

7. Where Did I Lose Your Love

8. What I Needed

9. What It Takes To Win

10. Turn Down The World Tonight

11. The Journey (Revelation)

12. The Place In Your Heart

"Generation" was little disappointing, and another tragedy came. Steve Augeri left the band due to illness. He had to leave the band during tour. The band continued the tour with Jeff Scott Soto. Then, it was announced that he was appointed to be officially the singer of the band. Nevertheless, he left the band after the tour. All of Journey fans worried about their future. After a while, I heard a strange news. It was announced that Journey chose a new singer, but the new vocal is a Filipino. I could not believe what I saw. Nothing against Filipinos, but I could not believe that one of the biggest American band picked a singer from Philippines. However, when I watched the band's performance at TV show on YouTube, I could not believe what I saw even more. The new singer just sounded like Steve Perry. Steve Augeri really matched with the band, but Arnel Pineda was totally on a different degree. I was stunned. Since that moment, I was really looking for the new album.

This album was solely distributed through Walmart. Right after it was released, I went there to purchase the record. It was much better than what I was expecting. The sound has the mood of "Frontier" and "Escape" era. When I heard track 1, I knew this album would be great. Every song in this album reminds me of their golden age of 80's. They had written another great ballad which should be added on their masterpiece, track 6. This song is comparable to "Open Arms" or "Faithfully". Track 7 became one of my favorite Journey songs. It is a great dramatic rock tune. They also played two songs from the last album. They picked the best tracks from it. Even though, I liked the original version, it is really interesting how the voice of Arnel Pineda matches better to the songs. Journey has returned stronger than ever!!

☆☆☆☆☆

Heart Full Of Fire / Brother Firetribe (2008)

1. Who Will You Run To Now

2. Wildest Dreams

3. Runaways

4. Game They Call Love

5. Play It From The Heart

6. Heart Full Of Fire

7. Heard It On My Radio

8. Going Out With A Bang

9. Out Of My Head

10. Chasing The Angels (Mike Reno Cover)

11. I Am Rock

Europe has its own unique rock/metal scene. I am always jealous about it. However, the most of them don't become huge in the U.S., which I really don't understand. Maybe because these European bands won't be played on radio. Maybe because they don't have strong connection or strong record companies that can push them. Whatever the reasons are, the fact that they are not famous in America or Japan does not make them less awesome.

One thing that I like about those European bands is that they show much influence from 80's music (Please note that whatever I say in this blog is based on personal opinions). This band is another example of them. I was first interested in this band because Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen from Nightwish was playing. I was expecting symphonic metal sound at first, which I also loved, but this band show a lot of respect and love for 80's music. You can feel that from the cover of "Chasing the Angels", a song from the movie, "Iron Eagle 2". 

The album contains great songs that show a lot of influence of 80's with modern sound. My favorites are "Wildest Dream", "Play from the Heart", "Heart Full Of Fire", "Chasing the Angels", and "I Am Rock". Since I love so many bands from 80's, it was so easy to listen the whole album. If you like AOR bands from 80's, please buy this record and listen to it!! You won't regret paying some money for these awesome pieces.

☆☆☆☆☆

The Premonition / Firewind (2008)

1. Into The Fire

2. Head Up High

3. Mercenary Man

4. Angles Forgive Me

5. Remembered

6. My Loneliness

7. Circle Of Life

8. The Silent Code

9. Maniac

10. Life Foreclosed

Most people in America learned the name Gus. G when he joined Ozzy Osbourne Band. However in Europe, South America, and Asia, he was already known with many band and projects he worked. I first heard his name as a guitarist who is playing in three different bands at a time. That really did not interest me at that time. One day, I was surfing on YouTube and checking many metal bands and found the video of "Head Up High". Immediately, it caught my attention. Soon after that, I purchased this album. It was more than surprise. It was astonishing. Great Riff, great melody, great arrangement, great songs!!!

When I started listening to this record, I figured how a great riff maker Gus. G was right away. I read on a music magazine somewhere him saying that he did not write melody for songs. If that story is true, Apolo must be a great partner and melody maker. Melody has good hook and sometimes catchy and sometimes becomes very emotional. The album is full of great songs. Especially, tension from tracks 1 to 5 is amazing and does not give you time to breathe! 6 is a beautiful ballad, and the mood becomes mellow. From tracks 7 to 10, they press on you with energy. Track 9 is perticulary a excellent piece.

I know he did not put input in songwriting in Ozzy Osbourne Band. I am really hoping that, someday, we can hear Ozzy singing Gus. G's songs. That collaboration will be more interesting than having hired songwriter's songs.

☆☆☆☆☆