Music Review - Dark Tranquillity - Fiction

Dark Tranquillity are one of the most influential Death Metal bands around. Their style is generally classified as Melodic Death Metal, a sub-genre that attaches sensibilities from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal to the rough and tumble genre of Death Metal. Dark Tranquillity, along with At The Gates and In Flames, helped launch a whole style of music, named Gothenburg Metal, after the city in which they're from.This specific offshoot of Metal would later influence would be called the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, that was prevalent in the late 90's and early 00's, with notable bands being Killswitch Engage, Otep, Mudvayne, As I Lay Dying and Avenged Sevenfold.

Fiction is Dark Tranquillity's 8th album, and marks their 18th year as a band. With each release, DT seem to open up their sound more and more, bringing in different elements into the fold that you wouldn't think fit, but are executed so elegantly and effortlessly that it just flows right on through, showing off the versatility of these Swedes. Fiction is 10 tracks of heavy riffage. the riffs in tracks like Nothing to No One, Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive) and Blind at Heart are as heavy as they come, really showing off that Neo-Classical influenced NWOBHM style. One of the things that first attracted me to DT is that lead singer Mikael Stanne's vocals are understandable, even though he's all over the place, going from guttural growls to raspy screaming, to even clean singing on Misery's Crown. You might have difficulty understanding everything he's saying, but you can tell there is some real depth to the lyrics, and understandable enough to be able to sing (or growl) along with him, which is something that has always distanced me from the Death Metal and Black Metal genres. I might enjoy a song technically, but if I can't understand what the singer is saying then I just can't get into it, and Stanne avoids that in his work with DT.

One of the things that keeps me interested in DT is that they are never content with finding one formula and sticking with it, they expand their sound while still making solid entries in the genre. On Fiction, you'll find an uncommonly large amount of synth and piano work, plunging along these beautiful melodies with the riffs and blast beats hitting hard,  and I think it does nothing but add wonderful texture to the songs. On Misery's Crown, Stanne does most of the song in a pretty nice sounding clean singing voice. In a genre like Death Metal that can easily get stagnant, it's really nice to see these guys playing around with these ideas. Opening up their sound without selling out. Just because Icipher has a really prominent piano doesn't mean you can call it anything other than a solid Death Metal track.

I really, really like Dark Tranquillity, and it was hard for me to pick which album of theirs I wanted to recommend the most, but Fiction has been with me the longest, and I find it one of theirs that I return to more often than others. If you've never stepped foot in the Death Metal genre or you're a die hard fan and are looking for something new and different, you'd be hard pressed to find a better gateway than Fiction.

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Music Review - White Wizzard - The Devil's Cut

It's been a couple years since the last album, Flying Tigers, and a lot has changed for White Wizzard, but a lot has also stayed the same. New to the band (in studio anyway) are guitarists Jake Dreyer and Will Wallner, bringing both Neo-Classical leads and Blues based leads, trading off throughout each track. The biggest change up however is lead singer Joseph Michael. Michael is different than Wyatt Anderson, lead singer on the last two albums, but he is still great in his own way. His vocals have a much more "Power Metal-y" ring to them than Wyatt, but his range is impeccable. He can hit falsetto's whenever he needs to and can bring his voice down to a growl and will often switch it up through the songs so that he hits both of those and everything in between, which gives the tracks a nice diverse sound.

The Devil's Cut is a solid 9 track album. The songwriting by Jon Leon is at this point very predictable, but that doesn't mean it's bad. If you've heard the other two Wizzard albums you know what you're getting. Some of the tracks have lyrics that are even a little too cheesy for me, mostly Kings of the Highway and Lightning In My Hands, but they are also immensely enjoyable. I thought it was really interesting how Leon brought the guitar parts into the tracks. Dreyer is well versed in the Neo-Classical shredder style, and Wallner is rooted in the Classical and Blues styles. So Leon would write the tracks and then pick which guitarist would fit each part of the song the best, and it pays off. Each tracks feels like it was meticulously crafted to hit the best way possible. The drum work from Giovanni Dürst is excellent as always. He never really stands out on his own, but the drumming is solid and there is never a beat or a drum hit that sounds out of place or unnecessary. Leon's bass work is in my opinion, incredibly interesting. For the most part, he's not really going into the songs trying to stand out, instead, his bass is always doing something in the background. It's not prominent, but any time the songs get a little quiet you can hear him just noodling away back there. Little riffs and hooks filling up space and keeping the tracks from ever being stale.

Since the album is only 9 tracks, that let the band explore longer song forms and get a little more Prog-y on this release. Nothing spectacular, but they're able to explore songs and take them into directions you might not go if you're aiming for a three minute and thirty second time slot. We open the album with Forging The Steel, a two minute instrumental that serves as an intro to the first real song, the decidedly epic Strike The Iron, which comes in at nearly 7 minutes. It's catchy and full of memerable vocal and guitar riffs and hooks. Michael's voice take pretty much every twist and turn that it's going to go on this album, so it's a nice showcase for what he can do and what the new guitarist duo can bring to the table. Then we get Kings of the Highway, which isn't a favorite of mine, but is a shred-tastic song. It sounds similar to a mix between Turbo-era and Painkiller-era Judas Priest. Lightning in My Hands is a pure Wizzard classic. It has all the staples, killer riffs, epic, machismo-ridden lyrics (My finger's tapped to rocket fuel/ignite the fire in me and you) and it just rocks hard. It's a highlight of the album. Then we get into a sort of ballad that is full of warning and concern, Steal Your Mind, that clocks in at nearly 7 and a half minutes. It's full of lyrics telling you to stay true to yourself, and I can get behind that. Then we get to the title track, The Devil's Cut, which picks the tempo back up and it's full of more empowering lyrics, like "Music is the truth that sets me free." After that, we lead into the first song released from this album, and the song most reminiscent of the last two White Wizzard albums, Torpedo of Truth. If you've heard the other two Wizzard albums, you already know exactly what Torpedo is going to sound like, but that doesn't make it any less fun. It's a raucous. The next track, Storm Chaser, is a fun little jaunt that goes for a more Blues based Metal approach over the Neo-Classical, and sounds similar to L.A. Nights from the last album in tone. More about fun and partying than it is about devils or demons or magic. We close the album with the 9 and a half minute epic The Sun Also Rises, a wonderful exercise that brings the whole band together to shine. Everyone gets a little showcase. It's a song to close concerts with, with everyone pumping their fists in the air, chanting along with the band that the sun will surely rise.

Overall, I really enjoyed the album. The biggest problem I had with Flying Tigers was Leon playing all the guitar parts and having the second half sounding a little same-y for me. He disclosed in an interview with Metalsucks that he didn't enjoy doing that, and he mostly did it to get the songs done without having to spend the time finding new band members, because they had run out of time. At 9 tracks and with two guitarists with different but complimentary styles I think Leon avoids most of that this time around. He said that they mostly put out this album so people could get used to this incarnation of the band, and they're already working on a follow up. Unfortunately, On their European tour, singer Joseph Michael and Leon got in a huge fight, and the whole group disbanded, so White Wizzard is once again just Leon.

So if you enjoy cheesy, over the top Metal that also happens to be technically really well preformed and an exemplary release from this genre of "Retro" Metal, get The Devil's Cut. 




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