Manilla Road to the World - Part 15: Grindhouse (Playground of the Damned)

This is where we reach the end for the Manilla Road spinoff for Monday Metal Treasures. Playground of the Damned is Manilla Road's most recent album that came out last Summer (July on vinyl, August for CD). For the latest Manilla Road release, Playground of the Damned feels more laid back after following a couple of concept albums from the band since the reunion. Although there is a lyrical theme throughout the record, this feels like it has more freedom than its predecessors. Fifteen albums on and the 'Road are still as great as ever. When you have some really dark tracks like Into the Maelström, Grindhouse and Abattoir de la Mort and the anthem of Brethren of the Hammer, you can tell the band is still in great shape after all these years.

Grindhouse starts off with some acoustic guitars which is rather ironic to have considering the lyrical theme of the song. The intro is rather lengthy when the light intro is turned heavier and then eventually into the darkness. Not only do the riffs have a whole new flavour of dark, there is a sense of familiarity from Gates of Fire (think The Fall of Illiam). Although the overall sound production from Manilla Road can turn listeners off (hopefully not whoever has followed this to the end), from someone who's adapted to the oddities, the drums do sound rather thin here which is a shame but it doesn't knock the awesomeness of the song. When you have a song with evil lines such as "Welcome to the mind of a madman / Welcome to the house of pain / Inside this nightmare of slaughter / The reaper always knows your name", it's easy to love the brutality of the Grindhouse. The song ends off with a lengthy solo that elaborates a lot and makes a great way to conclude this grim song. Overall, Grindhouse is downright dark but that's the overall atmosphere of Playground of the Damned and it fits perfectly. The inclusion of this secures a top 10 spot for this album for the best of heavy metal in 2011.

Week 50: Hammers of Misfortune - The Trial and the Grave

The artist: Hammers of Misfortune kick ass! Yes, that's how this post should start off considering the awesomeness of this band that sadly finds itself criminally overlooked. Founded by John Cobbett, former guitarist of Slough Feg and Ludicra, his band provides an excellent mixture of vocals from both genders. The band have also explored in several subgenres of metal. The main focuses have been traditional and progressive metal but there were strong black metal and folk music elements on the debut album named The Bastard. You wouldn't think the same band would also release an album with strong 70s prog rock elements but the signature characters of the band, particularly with the co-operation with male and female vocals (which may I add makes this band quite a gem), define this band in several styles. Out of all the bands featured on Monday Metal Treasures, this is one of the most highly recommended artists.

The album: The August Engine is Hammers of Misfortune's second album and moves away from the black metal elements that were present in The Bastard. This record has a stronger traditional metal feel but the album is still highly progressive and some tracks are even thrashy. The instrumental track The August Engine, Pt. 1 is technical ecstasy by quickly switching back and forth with acoustic guitars and the full driving force of the band and the song makes a sudden end for the following track Rainfall that manages to make an odd transition that actually works. More complex work is shown later on with The August Engine, Pt. 2 where the second half finds itself gradually moving to acoustic movements and back. And to think all of these tracks together make a concept album. I could go on all day about The August Engine but the point is, this album is damn good and should be some of the best 45 minutes you'll hear from heavy metal!

The song: The Trial and the Grave is the final song on The August Engine. Out of all the songs featured on Monday Metal Treasures, the lyrics for this song are quite possibly the ones that stand out the most. Yes, you could say the lyrics actually go above the music here but that's not to say the musicianship is short of excellence. You have some very doomy guitars from Mike Scalzi and John Cobbett who make the best impressions at the start and the finale section. The band tones down to make way for the strong vocals from Janis Tanaka (sorry, no Scalzi here).

The song goes through a long depressive route showing no happiness anywhere in sight. If anything, this shows the visions of a ghost seeing the sad ending of a woman who is sentenced for death and followed by the barristers cutting the body into pieces. It's a horrible thought and if it were sung by a death metal band, they'd take this as a joke and laugh at it but not Hammers of Misfortune who put real emotion to their music. The last verse just shows how sad the ex-life of someone was by explaining how no-one acknowledged the woman and that everyone completely forgot about her. The finale shows some slow movements from the guitarists and while this part may seem to drag, it has a purpose to take its time since if the lyrics were unsettling, why should the music make it easier for you?

Overall, The Trial and the Grave is a very depressive song. You'd have to come up with something a whole lot sadder (and not done in some emo bullshit way) to make this song look like Helloween in comparison. This song is by far one of the saddest songs metal has ever experienced and is a prime example of excellent female vocals in heavy metal and if there's one band that should make their way to the top over the next decade, it's this unique bunch.

Week 48: Solstice - Cromlech

The artist: Solstice from the UK are an epic doom metal band who despite only ever releasing two albums and an EP, have made a recent comeback. Not a whole lot happened with them in the 00s but with the recent tours and writing one new song for their live shows, you can tell they've returned to the metal realm and are ready to kick even more ass sometime in the near future. The third album named Englander is highly anticipated considering it's been 13 years since they released New Dark Age and they're well overdue.

The album: New Dark Age is the superior album out of the two Solstice albums. If you hear this record first, there isn't much to care about Lamentations. New Dark Age has some monstrous doom metal numbers including The Sleeping Tyrant (which had a low budget music video), Cimmerian Codex, Hammer of Damnation, Cromlech and New Dark Age, Pt. 2. These are the main five tracks of the album and could have just left it at that but Solstice added a whole new dimension by adding an individual section with an acoustic interlude, a very folky ballad and a spoken verse with sounds of wind blowing. Afterwards, the album immediately returns to its doom destruction. Another thing to note about New Dark Age is the unusual choice of words. When reading the lyrics, you'll come across many words that you may have not heard of all your life and extra credit should be handed out to them for acknowledging such words. Lastly, by getting the re-release of this album, you will be rewarded with an excellent cover of Iron Maiden's The Prophecy.

The song: Cromlech starts off rather moody with the bass and clean guitars. The bass is certainly one of the finest performances for it from Solstice and this intro is justified. The heavy guitars kick in after a minute but it's not long until the band pick up the pace. The rhythm may be fast for doom metal but the song endures itself long enough, especially when some lines are repeated several lines. This isn't bad, though since it's hard to get enough of "LEND ME YOUR STEEL!" Now that just screams heavy metal. Even if the song is faster than an average doom metal song, Richard M. Walker and Hamish Glencross do not halt with the crushing doom riffs. The song does slow down within 6 minutes and this is where we're given the beautiful solo by them. The main rhythm isn't done yet, though as it returns afterwards to finish off the full lyrics. Some parts may be repeated several times but it still offers a lot within 10 1/2 minutes. Overall, Cromlech just proves what this heavily overlooked band can do with their music and here's hoping Englander will take notes from songs like these.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 13: Blood Eagle (Voyager)

Voyager is where Manilla Road take yet another very interesting turn for their music. Voyager is an entire album dedicated to vikings. This may not be your typical "viking metal" band but Mark Shelton does a fine tribute to the Norse mythology even if hundreds of other metal bands had beaten to him already. Voyager is yet another record that's full of doomy riffs and Mark Shelton even shows his roughest and lowest pitched vocals out of everything he's done, even coming close to the sound of a death metal vocalist. For an album that lasts a little over an hour, you can be sure to be on quite a journey when hearing Manilla Road's Voyager.

Blood Eagle starts with a cathedral organ which drops off the sudden dark riffing. The first section of the track could have been cut from the rest to be on its own but it adds more flavour to this very song. When the main course arrives, there is some headbanging to be done and it only steps down a bit for the chorus. The chorus even has a power metal anthem feel to it which is rather bizarre when you're throwing in fast doomy riffs with a slight hint of death metal grunts. Six minutes seem to go incredibly fast here but then again, it does accompany with the organ intro. The song takes on the vikings heading to Vineland and confronting the bishop in the name of the norse gods. They sacrifice the bishop to avenge Thor and Odin. The song may be religiously controversial but those were very tough times back then and Mark Shelton has reflected that well with this beast.

Manilla Road to the World - Part 12: The Fall of Illiam (Gates of Fire)

Gates of Fire is another concept album from Manilla Road. Instead of one big concept to focus on, Gates of Fire tells three different stories with them being based on The Frost Giant's Daughter, Virgil's Aeneid and the Spartan King Leonidas and the battle of Thermopylae. The album shows a strong variety including the album opener Riddle of Steel that has a vibe from Open the Gates era, Behind the Veil and Epitaph to the King as acoustic ballads and some challenges in terms of length with Betrayal and the whole of tracks 4-6 covering Virgil's Aeneid. There's a whole lot this album offers and you will need to give it time for both the music itself and the conceptual themes.

The Fall of Illiam stands as the longest track Manilla Road have recorded yet. With this song, Mark Shelton makes the way with an acoustic guitar with Cory Christner on the drums. Christner is quite a drummer and you will acknowledge this when the distorted doom metal guitars kicks in. The drums stand out very well and show some technical aspects to them. The first three verses use the same musical structure to them and although the flow of music usually works if it's repeated just once, the triple occurrance makes a better use of endurance as well as giving a really good feel of the sound. The song makes it way to a three minute solo and you'd think by the last minute it would start to get tedious but the solo segment doesn't feel boring nor tedious at all. Mark Shelton creates a sweet melody that would sure require a lot of memorization if this was ever played live.

The second half of the song shows yet more amazing musicianship from the band where Mark Shelton takes on another intense riff. Cory Christner shows a lot more aggression to the drums and a most of his drum kit in full use. Harvey Patrick even has his bass louder and clear in the second half. Like the earlier part of the song, this part of the song structure is repeated a few times and again gives you a lot of time to absorb the fantastic moments from the song. For a 15 minute song, time sure goes quick with this masterpiece. It's an endurance for a Manilla Road song but the band as whole made the lengthy song very effective. This is easily a top 5 contender for the best songs ever recorded by Shelton & co.

Week 45: Argus - Durendal

The artist: Argus are a new metal band from America who fall between the traditional metal sound and epic doom metal (think Candlemass, DoomSword, etc). This month will dedicate to my best discoveries from this year and after picking up Argus' new album from the Slough Feg/Solstice show in London, I'm most grateful for seeing this album sold at the merchandise. For a doom metal band, they're very easy to get into so it's nothing too inaccessible for the most part. From what's been played for their first two albums, this band has a lot of potential and hopefully they serve more killer albums in the near-future.

The album: Boldly Stride the Doomed is Argus' second album only released this year. The album starts and ends with the same acoustic melody but in between has many doom-ish classic-esque metal numbers. With the album taking off with A Curse on the World right after the acoustic intro, the title track making some nods to traditional metal and some section changes with Fading Silver Light and the doom monster Pieces of Your Smile, you can expect Boldly Stride the Doomed to offer a lot to the listen while making it accessible (except for the challenging doom closer). This is one highlight for 2011 and we still have two months left.

The song: Once the war horns are played, the band kicks off with traditional metal-like twin guitars but with a spice of doom. The main riffs sound like something Mike Scalzi would cook up for Slough Feg. The solos are full of musical bliss with Erik Johnson and Jason Mucio passing the baton to each other. Each pass intensifies the duo on their guitar solo performances. Butch Balich on this song sounds like Hansi Kursch from Blind Guardian if he was the lead vocalist for Candlemass. He has strong emotional voices like how Johan Langquist and Messiah Marcolin executed on their representing Candlemass albums and the extreme power of his voice is something you'd expect from Hansi Kursch. The lyrics cover Roland, the paladin of Charlemagne and the legendary sword named Durendal. There is a war between the pagans and Roland swears to never back down, especially with the mighty line of "I will never go back, never retreat, rather that I meet death" Now THAT is how emotion in music should be done. Overall, Durendal is a highlight not just on the album but also for heavy metal in 2011. To have such grand guitars and a hugely powerful voice is a song that shouldn't leave your iPod anytime soon.

Week 31: Candlemass - Spellbreaker

The artist: Candlemass are a leading band in doom metal. Although they're not the pioneers of doom metal considering Black Sabbath had strong doom metal influences for their music, there's no doubt that Candlemass have made an impact on doom metal and should be noted as one of the key bands of the genre, even if there's several different subgenres of doom metal such as sludge metal, funeral doom, drone and even a crossover with death metal. Candlemass fall under epic doom metal and that shouldn't be doubted at all considering the name of their debut album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. Candlemass have gone through some changes with their line-ups but the most recognisable ones are the original band members for the debut album, Messiah Marcolin era and the current Robert Lowe era. Those two along with Johan Längqvist are great vocalists and provide the right voices for their respective albums. Along with great vocalists, there's also fantastic riffs throughout their career and that's what makes doom metal great, especially Black Sabbath with Tony Iommi on guitar.

The album: The self-titled album is Candlemass' comeback album after reforming the band with Messiah on vocals. The reunion was definitely worth doing for this album, even though Messiah would leave the band a year after. Even so, he provided one more great album with Candlemass and this is easily the most consistent Messiah Candlemass album to date. Nightfall and Tales of Creation may not have an easy sitting with the interludes thrown in but the most self-titled album has is The Man Who Fell from the Sky which is a great instrumental and doesn't feel like it was randomly thrown in. This album provides nine doom crushing tunes and all of them reminded the listeners what made Candlemass a great addition in doom metal.

The song: Spellbreaker breaks out with a crunching riff just like any other Candlemass song but there's always some character between all the riffs they play and this song is no exception. The song may start off rather slow but it soon speeds up, even though doom metal is typically slow. During the second section of the song, what needs to be noted is Messiah's excellent singing. He may have some pointless wailing in these parts of the song but it shows us all his singing capabilities and why he was the best vocalist for Candlemass. The solo in the middle section is one of the finest Candlemass have provided to the vocalists. It starts off slow but speeds up while the rest of the band keep its pace as it is.

The lyrical content is based on Jesus Christ and God and while Christianity may not be a topic to talk about in heavy metal, Candlemass put stories based on the bible in a darker tone to give them a whole new meaning. This doesn't necessarily mean they're christian metal and if you can talk about a religious story in a different spin, the results can turn out nicely as shown here. In conclusion, Spellbreaker shows great capabilities of the band for its drumming, doomy riffs, dark stories, tempo changes and of course, Messiah's excellent vocal range.