D-A-D "30 Years Of Hits"

AFM Records
2014

If you call yourself any kind of fan of hard rock (especially damn good hard rock!) then the name D-A-D should ring all kinds of bells! With their distinct sound and ability to write absolute ROCKERS ("Sleeping My Day Away" anyone?) this ambitious outfit (from Denmark of all places!) has been going at it now for three decades and this KILLER collection is nothing short of AWESOME! With 30 hits(!!!!!) spread out over 2CDs this one is so freakin' cool that I would even know where to start! Spanning their whole career (from 1986's "Call of the Wild" up to the band's 11th(!) studio album "DIC·NII·LAN·DAFT·ERD·ARK" it's all covered on this sweet-ass collection!) you get early tracks like (nitty-gritty rocker) "Marlboro Man", "Call of the Wild" (the title track from D-A-D's debut album is simply cool!) and "Riding With Sue" (all of which show off the band's earlier, and yet still groovy-like effective, country rock roots!) and later day tracks like "Monster Philosophy" and "We All Fall Down". I'll admit that I haven't followed this band as much as I should or could have (frankly there are a LOT of later day tracks that I was not too familiar with, but this band still has it as evident by the likes of  "I Want What She’s Got" (which was the first single off of  "DIC·NII·LAN·DAFT·ERD·ARK"), and the groovy rocker "A New Age Moving In". Logically this (soon to be released) 2-CD (Digipak) starts at the very beginning with other cool cuts (besides the ones already mentioned like "Marlboro Man", "Call of the Wild" and "Riding With Sue") like "Isn't That Wild", "I Won't Cut My Hair" (sleazy AC/DC-infused hard rock with ever-present lead singer Jesper Binzer doing his very best impersonation of Bon Scott!) and (one of my faves along with the also included "Jihad"!) "Sleeping My Day Away" showing how wicked D-A-D was and (judging by later-day tracks like the smooth "Soft Dogs" and somewhat ghoulish "Scare Yourself") still was up to and including present-day! While this might not be the first compilation album from these Danish rockers it's hard to argue that it's anything other then a great collection given the fact that it really is JAM-PACKED with hit after hit! It's certainly more than a fitting way to celebrates the band's 30^th anniversary and really, if all that you know about this Danish delight is just tracks like "Sleeping Your Day Away", "Jihad", "Girl Nation" and "Point Of View" (all of which appeared on the groups 1989 break-through album, "No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims", which EVERYONE seemed to have back in the day in their personal collection!), this seems like it would be a choice place to start as this career-spanning retrospective album is, above all friends, a blast! And really it is the first "Best Of" collection from this hard rock collective! Given how easily these guys could shift from numbers like "Bad Craziness" (radio rock at it's best this one came from the group's successful forth album, "Riskin' It All" along with represented cuts like the emotional "Grow or Pay" and "Laugh and a Half") to tracks like "Reconstrucdead" and "Naked (But Still Stripping)" (both of which were off "Helpyourselfish" which, as the follow-up to "Riskin' It All", saw the band take their sound in a HEAVIER direction) while also easily making room for numbers as different as "Sleeping My Day Away" and "Something Good". With so much variety it can be a bit mind boggling and all, but really for the reason that D-A-D was able to pull it off as well as they did. There's no real reason why softer/sappier tracks like "Something Good" and  "Nineteenhundredandyesterdaytime" should work, but D-A-D makes these kind of style-changes look simple and even weirder moments like "Evil Twin" seem remarkably in the hands of Jesper Binzer and company! So, what it all boils down to is this. Whether you are looking for an excuse to finally add some more D-A-D to your collection  or you're already a fan and want to get all of the better moments of this Danish act in one neat package then "30 Years Of Hits" looks to be the way to go!
 

Chosen-Resolution

Self-Release
2013

Chosen hail from Dublin, Ireland and were formed in 2001. Since that time there's been four EPs and one demo released. There has also been line-up changes and a brief period in which the band took a breather. On "Resolution", the band's debut full-length release, there's a lot going on sound-wise for this to be just two guys. Even so the band really has been stripped down to just Paul Shields (vocals/guitars) and David McCann (drums/percussion). "Resolution", which was produced by Alwyn Walker, opens with "Engines of Disbelief". The band is offering the song as a free download and, trust me ladies and gentlemen when I say this, the rest of the album's 8 cuts are just as good as this heavy, percussion-laden, death metal thrasher.This duo takes the groove of Meshuggah and mixes if with the progressive death metal of bands like Cynic and Atheist. Speaking of Atheist, who were such an inventive band themselves, Chosen captures the listener's attention early on and easily holds it with there own take on progressive/jazz-infused death/thrash. Having the above influences, which also range on "Resolution" from Death to Nevermore, is one thing. The true mark of a veteran act is taking those influences and building your own band from the bottom up into something uniquely your own. On some level the sound of Chosen is familiar and yet, through their creative use of rhythmic drumming, progressive chord arrangements (and even acoustic passages), the music on "Resolution" is refreshingly original. The record, which I enthusiastically recommend, is quite heavy and brutal, but it's also surprising warm and inviting. There are so many different elements to these 9 tracks that I found myself returning to for repeated listens before I even sat down to do this write-up. Had Chosen released "Resolution" back in the late eighties/early nineties I have no doubt they would be held in the same high regard as bands like Atheist and Cynic. This album challenges the listener to hand themselves fully over to the music and to simply let the ride take you where it chooses. As it's being offered in several different versions fans have a few options.There is a double CD that features a 9-track bonus disc of unreleased songs, rough mixes, drum and bass tracks. These tracks were taken from the album sessions and the double CD will feature along a detailed booklet inside. Then there is also the Collectors Edition of the album that includes a beautiful 60-page, full color soft cover booklet, extensive liner notes, lyrical themes and illustrations for each song as well as rare photos, studio diaries and much more! All of that comes packaged in a exquisite tapestry of expanded album artwork courtesy of Fiaz Farrelly! Needless to say that version is a true collector's item for those who want to go all. No matter which version of this album you pick up it's the music that matters and this Irish duo has created a near perfect progressive death album!




http://ashermediarelations.com/2013/02/08/extreme-irish-metallers-chosen-announce-new-album-resolution-offer-free-download-of-song-engines-of-belief/

Arisen From Nothing-In Nothing We Trust

Self-released/Independent
2012

 Even if it's not the first place you think of when you think of metal (as it will probably forever be known as the grunge central thanks to the likes of Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and Mudhoney) Seattle has always been a source of quality metal bands. This young band was formed in 2008 and has more in common with some of the great metal acts that Seattle gave us (bands like Sanctuary and Metal Church) then the grunge scene that gave the world Pearl Jam. Their promo material proudly displays the vast amounts of awards they have received in their young career and, judging by the strength of this recording, I'd argue that they are more than deserving of the various accolades they have thus far received in their home territory. "In Nothing We Trust" (a great album title if I do say so myself) is the sophomore release from Seattle's Arisen From Nothing and showcases a hungry young band with nowhere to go but up. The band's first recording was the "Speed of Life" EP (or is it a demo?) in 2009 with their debut full-length, "Prototype", following in 2010. This new album sees the addition of TJ Hill who brings a new level of professionalism to this young band. In fact, his range is a good selling point to this album but we'll get to that bit later. The band's ReverbNation page lists acts like Trivium, All That Remains, Bullet for My Valentine, Atreyu and Killswitch Engage as influences .All of those acts do come into play in Arisen From Nothing's sound as here we see a group that perfectly blends hints of modern hard rock/modern metal, melodic metal, metalcore, traditional heavy metal and the heavier American-style version of power metal that, in this young band's case, borders on thrash. Even without the lyric sheet in front of me it's obvious that the band's sophomore recording is heavily packed with numerous politically-charged messages. The album tackles relevant issues impacting our society as a whole so it's not lighthearted in the least. Lyrically it had me thinking about Sacred Reich's material (especially "Surf Nicaragua" and "The American Way") or even Metallica's "...And Justice for All". Thankfully it's more "The American Way" then "...And Justice for All" in not only the intensity department, but also in the fact that you can actually make out the heavy bass playing of Eric Hanson! As it's only a couple of months old the album's lyrics are as poignant as ever especially as we look at the decaying state of our country. Of course what good is any message without the proper voice to relay it? As hinted at earlier it's TJ Hill that helps make all the difference as the album unfolds. With ease he's able to offer vocal change-ups between tracks. He spits out the message as if his life was depending on it and plays with not only passion, but fire in his gut. Of course even the best vocalist can only do so much if the music isn't memorable right? Arisen From Nothing deliver these messages in a way that displays powerful modern metal with all the hallmarks of a well-oiled heavy metal machine. They play a brutal brand of metal that is chuck-full of technical riffs and heavy hooks. The album's opener, "In Nothing We Trust", is hard-driving modern metal with a touch of Metallica/Megadeth thrash added to the mix to keep things fierce. "Russian Roulette" (no, not a cover of the Accept song) offers seriously crunchy riffs...no, make that meaty riffs. They are the kind of meaty riffs that you can really sink your teeth into! "Mesmerized" actually embraces nu metal's heavier moments, but in a good way (yes, that is possible). It's main hook did seem to come from Run DMC's "It's Tricky", but when you consider "It's Tricky" has almost the same hook as The Kink's "My Sharona" it's not that big of a thing. "Bring the War" thrashes about in the same world as Killswitch Engage and As I Lay Dying. "The Shallow" is a more even-keeled metal moment while "Sick" is just like it's title says. It's sick, menacing modern metal. "Faith in Violence" can be taken in several different ways, but just like the album's others cuts it's powered by the menacing guitar work of Troy Elmore. In Troy Elmore's hands the guitar is itself a lethal weapon of warfare. Meanwhile the hard-hitting drums on "In Nothing We Trust" were preformed by Peter Breene. It should be noted though that Chris Black (who has the perfect last name for a metal musician) is the band's current drummer. As a whole you have got to give this young band due credit for writing more then just a simply-assembled, by the numbers, modern metal release. You can tell that a lot of thought and dedication went into this album. Words like powerful and gripping just don't cut it or do this album justice. It's more then just a good metal album as it's moving metal with a message. I was frankly quite surprised to find out that the album was recorded in Troy's living room by TJ. Especially as it was done with the help of protools. That goes against everything bad I've ever had to say about protools as "In Nothing We Trust" sounds like a professionally produced album. Special props should be given to the band for making this album sound insanely sick on what must have been a limited budget. You can find out more about Arisen From Nothing and hear this kick ass album for yourself at the link right below. The other link is for a killer Youtube video that is highly recommend. And of course it goes without saying that I highly recommend this album. How this band has managed to stay unsigned is beyond me. Hopefully that will change soon enough for Arisen From Nothing.

http://www.arisenfromnothing.com/afnhome.html 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAvFCjjLC-c

The Best of 2012

Last year I decided that instead of posting a typical "Best Off" list (since you could spend all of New Year's Day reading lists that had a lot of the same albums listed over and over again) that I would make my yearly list based solely on my own album reviews. Whether that was looked at as being egotistically in nature or not never really dawned on me (not that I would have cared) as I simply wished to present something different. The same thing applies with this year's list. These are album's I personally reviewed for Heavy Metal Time Machine. If there is some fantastic album missing then chances are good that I didn't personally review it or that I didn't think it was so fantastic myself. As with last year these are in no particular order and it's also very likely that, with all of the grey hairs that I got this past year, I simply forgot some great albums I reviewed myself. Either way I'd love to read your best of lists for 2012 so make your voices heard!

PS-Some may have notes while others do not. It's just a random thing....


1) Graveyard-"Lights Out"
 I have not checked out any best of lists myself, but chances are this album has to have made a few. Graveyard's "Lights Out" is simply a wicked mixture of retro-rock, hard rock and doom metal. I bought this album myself just so I could review it!

2) Killing Joke-"MMXII"
A)It's Killing Joke and B)It's awesome
Seriously though, this is another album that I'm going to wager made more then a few lists this year as it's insanely good. How it is these guys can still put out music this good after over 30 years together is a mystery to me.

3) Afterlife-"In The Shadows"
Afterlife is a band made up of two former Razorblade members in bassist Fredrik Gunnarsson and guitarist Jompa Gustafsson. Razorblade were a cult heavy metal band that released "Run For Your Life/Ready To Fight" in 1985. A little over 27 years after that release Fredrik Gunnarsson and Jompa Gustafsson came together and with a little help from drummer Pether Svedjewik released "In The Shadows". Afterlife actually cover "Run For Your Life" on the album as as well as the classic Demon track "Don't Break the Circle". NWOBHM fans would do ell to check into this album if they haven't already as this is one band that deserves more attention then they got!

4) Mongrel-"Reclamation"
Punk metal with female lead vocals!

5) Danger Zone-"Undying"
Yes, the same band that released the excellent EP, "Victim of Time" back in 1984 would release a new album in 2012 and yes, it was a great LP.

6) Dr. Living Dead-"Radioactive Intervention"
Crossover? Punk thrash?

7) Adrenechrome-"Hideous Appetites"
Again, is this crossover? Is it punk thrash? Not quite sure, but like Dr. Living Dead its fast, furious and fun!

8) Ouijbeard-"Die And Let Live"
This one actually features Dr. Living Dead's guitarist Dr. Toxic. Is it crossover? No. What is it? Well, it's B.O.C., Iron Maiden, Merciful Fate, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Black Sabbath and The Doors. It's all of those together and yet it's none of those specifically. It's simply an album that needs to be heard to be appreciated.

9) Tygers Of Pan Tang-"Ambush"
Another band that still sounds good after all these years. I wish the same could be said of Demon.

10) Vanderbuyst-"The Flying Dutchmean"

11) Uhrijuhla-"Uhrijuhla"
This s/t release from Uhrijuhla has very little in the way of "heavy metal". Instead its progressive rock meets 70's pop. Absolutely blissful...

12) Diagonal-"The Second Mechanism"

13) Accept- "Stalingrad"
Proving there is life after Udo!

14) Red Hot Rebellion- "Red Hot Rebellion"
Ohio act Red Hot Rebellion are a little Social Distortion, a little Motorhead, a little AC/DC and a lot of fun!

15)Existance-"Existance"
This technically might be a 2011 demo/album that was just 'touched up" by High Roller Records. Even so this French act is another young band to keep an eye on.

16) Arkham Witch-"Legions Of The Deep"

17) Mammoth Mammoth-"Vol. III Hell´s Likely"
Man alive this group rocks. They flat out ROCK!

18) Reverence- "When Darkness Calls"

19) Heavy Cross-"Street Wolf" (7" EP)
In case you have not noticed that there are more then a few traditional heavy metal/NWOBHM bands on my yearly list the reason why is simple-I love all things traditional heavy metal/NWOBHM/eighties metal. Heavy Cross offered up two tracks of heavy metal that sounded like a long lost gem and it was a wonderful listen!

20) A Sound Of Thunder-"Out Of The Darkness"
Very cool female fronted traditional heavy metal/power metal act!

OK, so there you have it. I am now certain that I missed one or two really great albums, but still these are some great releases from both well-known acts and not so-well known acts. As I went over the releases I noticed that there were also tons of great re-releases so sometime, if time ever allows, I might do the same thing ("Best Of" reviews) only with re-released or re-issued albums. Again, please share some of what you consider to be the best of 2012 and let's hope that 2013 is as good a year as this past one was for heavy metal!

Dio-The very beast of vol. 2

Niji
2012

We all know about Ronnie James Dio's life and his death. He gave a lot for decades no matter what band he was working for at the time. In addition to the many studio and live albums that he was part there have also been numerous anthologies dedicated to his work over the years. This one is a follow-up to the 2001album which spotlighted the band Dio's work from 1983's Holy Diver through to 1993 "Strange Highways. So this volume covered from 1996's Angry Machines onward. Now anyone whose favorite Dio comes this later time period would definitely be in a majority. Clearly the better albums were the earlier ones including "Holy Diver", "The last in line" and in my opinion the frequently underrated "Dream Evil". There were some decent albums from this time period like "Magica" and "Killing the dragon", but even at his best from this time Dio was repeating what he had done better in the 80's. The collection presents some very likable songs from this period including "Push", "Better in the dark" and "Along came a spider". Unfortunately also included are "Fever dreams" and "Feed my head" which represent Dio at his most tedious and unimaginative. Those last types of songs didn't happen  much in Ronnie's long career, but when they did it was mostly on some his later albums. This disc also includes some rarities including "Electra" (which was previously part of the "Tournado" box set) as well as "Prisoner of paradise" and "Metal will never die". "Electra" is probably the most interesting selection from that batch. Ronnie James Dio was always one of the most powerful and consistent vocalist going so hearing him sing anything is always pleasing to some extent. There are some good tracks on this album, but there are some throwaway songs too. I love the album cover and was glad to listen to some of these that I have not listened to it a while. Really this collection is just for die hard fans.

Top 5 favorite metal best ofs/greatest hits/anthologies

Now I am definitely a whole studio album kind of guy. I feel like any metal band that's worth their weight recorded their studio albums for you to hear and take in all of those songs in that order. That's why best ofs/greatest hits and anthologies don't appeal to me so much. However back in my younger days when I was just getting into bands these kind of albums were a great way to be introduced to a band and there are several of these albums that really made an impression on me. Here are my top five in no real order.

Motorhead-No Remorse
The anthology came out just as the band was putting together the four man line-up that would record "Orgasmatron" two years later. For this album we got a great blast of Motorhead's then relatively short past plus a couple of tracks with the new line-up. Killer anthology.

KISS-Double Platinum
KISS had plenty of faults, but this collection had a lot of their best songs on it. They have always been about making a buck, but at least back then they at least sounded like they were having fun and brought us along for the ride.


Ted Nugent-Great Gonzos! The best of Ted Nugent
This one was frequently found in the bargain bins of most department stores in the mid-1980's and because of that reason it became my introduction to one of the craziest performers of our time. Great collection that I still play fairly often.

Black Sabbath-We sold our soul for rock 'n' roll
Black Sabbath lasted for a long time through numerous lione-up changes and they churned out many albums. However I hear the name Black Sabbath and I think of the first six albums because they are essential Sabbath. This collection pulls songs from those classic albums.

Alice Cooper-Alice Cooper's Greatest hits
Like with Sabbath and KISS, Alice Cooper had a short period that was definitely the peak for this band. For Alice it was with original band and lasted from Love it to death through Muscle of love. It has some of their more accessible songs and less of the quirky and odd tracks, but it's still a fine collection with a great cover to boo.

***Be sure to add in any that you like.