Week 20: Dio - Egypt (The Chains Are On)

The artist: Ronnie James Dio was an icon in both heavy metal and hard rock. Ronnie was in several bands before forming Elf which is where he put his foot in the world of rock and roll. After Elf disbanded, Ritchie Blackmore approached Dio to be the vocalist for his new band Rainbow. Dio left Rainbow after musical differences with Ritchie Blackmore. Dio disagreed with the wind of changes and found himself replacing Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath. His time with Black Sabbath in the 80s was short but sweet with Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules. Dio's next musical direction was to form a band of his own with Vinny Appice and release Holy Diver which the title track, Stand Up and Shout and Rainbow in the Dark have become metal anthems.

Today marks the day Ronnie left us all after a long battle with stomach cancer. 2010 was a bleak year for heavy metal with losses such as Dio and Peter Steele from Type O Negative. To pay a tribute to the holy diver and the man who popularized the devil's horns in rock music, here is metal song of the week for Ronnie James Dio.

The album: The Last in Line is the follow-up to the classic Holy Diver. Although The Last in Line doesn't quite a hold a candle to Holy Diver, it's still a great album with yet more classic Dio songs such as We Rock, The Last in Line, I Speed at Night and the epic album closer Egypt (The Chains Are On) that shouldn't be underestimated.

The song: Egypt (The Chains Are On) addresses the exploitation of the people of ancient Egypt. The song starts off with an oriental intro which perfectly fits with a song about Egypt. The riffs are slow in this epic number but not everything can be rushed with fast riffs. This is one of the slower songs from The Last in Line and it's a song that finds the right tempo. One of the highlights from this song has to be the following lyrical section with "You've seen them walking on the water / You've seen flying through the sky / They were frightening in the darkness / They had rainbows in their eyes" This is where Dio truly shows the beauty of his vocal talent as well as great songwriting. The last line with "They had rainbows in their eyes" is hard to avoid relating it to Rainbow and be seen as a nod to the band. The solo following this section has an Egyptian feel to it which is why the slow tempo of the song is highly appropriate.

Egypt (The Chains Are On) is one of the most epic works by Ronnie James Dio and although he passed away a year ago, this is legacy he left us with and we have to be grateful for what he has done in the realm of heavy metal.

Week 19: Falconer - Substitutional World

The artist: Falconer are a power metal band who started in the 00s. They made their step in the metal realm with their self-titled album and show they can make highly melodic music with a great medieval atmosphere. Anyone who's a sucker for fantasy/medieval themes will feel right at home with their music. To make the band even better, the vocalist Mathias Blad offers excellent singing performance. Those who enjoy clean vocals in heavy metal should see something special in Mathias.

The album: Falconer's self-titled is the beginning of the band and offers ten excellent tracks. While you have heavier riffs in the album with Substitutional World and Lord of the Blacksmiths, there are also songs with a strong folk feel to them such as A Quest for the Crown and The Past Still Lives On. The variety Falconer's self-titled album provides should give the listener plenty to hear and keeping them away from boredom.

The song: Substitutional World has a semi-lengthy intro before Mathias Blad get a chance to sing. The song starts with a very melodic riff and solo and is a great example of what the band can do beyond Mathias. When Mathias kicks in, it's a bliss to hear his voice since it really is one of the finest from heavy metal and one of the best debunkers of "metal is just screaming". Substitutional World is about one's dream world and how it differs from the real world.

The lyrics aren't too kind with daydreamers, though as it denies you as a God or even the all-knowing from your dream world. The lyrics section this is in has Mathias in a huge spotlight with his beautiful singing and piano performance. The solos are all around melodic here and don't need to be the most complex or technical to make it good. These are the solos that are required for this particular song. In conclusion, Substitutional World is one of the best songs in Falconer's self-titled album and the fact that there's still nine other great tracks for you to hear only shows how much of a fantastic album it really is.

Week 18: Heidevolk - Alvermans Wraak

The artist: Heidevolk are a modern heavy metal band forming in 2002 and releasing their debut album in 2005. Heidevolk come from the Netherlands to offer kickass folk metal to the metal world. These guys aren't very big right now but there's confidence that they'll climb their up the ladder over the next few years as they release more great albums and attend bigger shows. They've had a boost of popularity with their appearance at Heidenfest 2010 and here's hoping more will discover them soon enough.

The album: Uit Oude Grond is the third and most recent album by Heidevolk released only last year. Just like the other two albums, all the songs are spoken in Dutch. While having a very folk-ish sound to their band, they also provide some heavy riffs. Although many folk metal bands have succeeded this, one would think Heidevolk would be much lighter with their music but Heidevolk don't hesistate to play loud and certainly not in this album considering the first few tracks.

The song: Alvermans Wraak (Alverman's Revenge in English) is one of the instrumentals in Uit Oude Grond starting off with an acoustic intro. The song is shortly introduced with the drums and a violin to go with the acoustic guitar. The violin even goes as far as having its own solo which is badass! This might not sound metal enough to some listeners so far but Heidevolk insured this song is easily classified as metal with some guitar riffs and solos that add to the great atmosphere Alvermans Wraak. This is an instrumental that makes you feel like you're in a tavern from long ago and enjoying yourself with other customers at the place having a few pints and dancing along to the music in the background. That's the imagery that should be in your mind, especially the minor vocal appearance at the end that reflect on those customers at the tavern. Overall, Alvermans Wraak is a great instrumental from Uit Oude Grond which is definitely worth hearing along with the first two tracks Nehalennia and Ostara.

Week 17: Overkill - E.Vil N.Ever D.Ies

The artist: Overkill are a big name in thrash metal and even heavy metal in general. These guys have been around as long as Metallica have but have been more popular underground. No matter what situation they were in, Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth and the other bandmates carried on their career. Their persistence has been rewarded with the success of their latest album Ironbound where they were kicking ass more than ever. Don't believe that statement? Then listen to The Green and Black and The Head and Heart and give the album a second thought.

The album: The Years of Decay is one of the classic Overkill albums from the 80s. This was the album where Overkill developed a more mature sound as well as exploring into longer tracks for the band. The Years of Decay holds the longest Overkill song ever with Playing With Spiders/Skullkrusher clocking in at 10:15. Not only that, the song experiments with doom metal elements which is rather odd for a thrash metal band to do but it works nonetheless. Even with their musical adventures for The Years of Decay, Overkill still provide straightforward thrash metal tracks such as Elimination, I Hate and Time to Kill to make the fans at the time to feel right at home.

The song: E.Vil N.Ever D.Ies is the closer to the Overkill saga which they started on their first album Feel the Fire. The song has a rather creepy intro but is then struck by the mid-pace bass and guitar riff and then comes the metal thrashing mad which is what should be expected from thrash metal. Other bands may go for a slow or epic number for their last song but when it comes to thrash metal, you've got to end it off with a thrash frenzy. Another great example of this is Metallica's Damage, Inc. This isn't all fast, though as the bridge slows down the pace and D.D. Verni shows off his great bass performance. Not only that, the guitar riff is also menacing and that's the one word you can describe the entire Overkill saga. The next part of the song gradually gets faster, thus going back to the fast and aggressive thrash closure containing plenty of shredding on the guitar. The song ends with "Evil. Never. DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIES!" Overall, this is a fine thrash metal closure and this is the sort of song you should have in mind when writing a thrash metal album. Aggression, speed, shredding and menacing bass lines, what more could you ask for in thrash metal?

Week 16: Christopher Lee - Act III: The Bloody Verdict of Verden

The artist: Christopher Lee shouldn't need an introduction, especially when he's a top notch actor. However, what does need to be stated is his contribution to heavy metal in the recent years. As his two favourite bands are Rhapsody and Manowar, he was more than willing to work with Rhapsody for their albums involving The Dark Saga. Following the first two albums he contributed to Rhapsody, Christopher Lee decided to work on a symphonic metal album of his own. He later had a voice role for Manowar's Battle Hymns MMXI where he spoke the narration in Dark Avenger which was originally done by Orson Welles.

The album: Charlemagne: By The Sword and the Cross is Christopher Lee's symphonic metal album project. The album is based on King Charlemagne who Christopher Lee claims is one his ancestors. The album is divided in acts and while it goes through the history of Charlemagne, it's hard to not think that there are probably too many intro tracks in the album. Counting the overture, Charlemagne contains SIX intro tracks. That is rather overkill but one song that sticks out very well is the third act The Bloody Verdict of Verden. Although this album is more neoclassical than metal, it's hard to overlook a big actor like Christopher Lee making his own heavy metal album. You can never be too old to be metal!

The song: The Bloody Verdict of Verden is strongly symphonic just like the rest of the album but it's also the strongest metal sounding. This part of the concept album is based on the massacre of Saxons in 782 A.D. which is easily stated with the awesome chorus. Christopher Lee manages to makes this song very dramatic throughout the song which is what you need when you're singing about many men killed. As stated before, this song has an awesome chorus with Lee shouting out "I SHED THE BLOOD OF THE SAXON MEN!" many times. It may be repetitive but it needs to address the amount of men who were murdered in the massacre of Verden. Fortunately the song provides a majestic riff and solo at the end giving the heavy metal feeling it requires. Overall, this is a great song sung by Christopher Lee. Credit has to be given to both him and the instrumental contributors for this fine work and hopefully he still has plenty of time to make more contributions to the heavy metal universe.

Week 15: Manowar - Guyana (Cult of the Damned)

The artist: Manowar are a very recognisable heavy metal band. However, recognition doesn't always mean praise. While many metal fans love their music, many others hate it. One of the common complaints about the band is their apperance and accusing them of being homosexuals which is rather absurd. Not only does their album cover Gods of War contains naked women on the album cover, bashing a metal band for being "gay" is downright disrespecting Rob Halford and his sexual preference. Anyone who's this ignorant shouldn't be associated with metal in any way. Whether Manowar are gay or not doesn't determine their musical quality and these guys have written great tracks.

Last week, Scott Columbus passed away for unknown reasons. He's played in all the Manowar records so far except for Battle Hymns and The Triumph of Steel. It's sad to see a metal brother like him going at the age of 54 and my sympathy goes to all his family and friends. For this week we will cover Manowar to pay tribute to the late drummer.

The album: Sign of the Hammer is one album that can slip under the radar. From the early Manowar days, Battle Hymns and Hail to England are more praised while Into Glory Ride has become infamous for the "homoerotic" album cover (Anthology is worse, though). That just leaves us with Sign of the Hammer and there are tracks in the album that prove to be worthy additions for Manowar's library of music.

The song: Guyana (Cult of the Damned) is based on the mass suicide by Jim Jones in 1978 who was full of conspiracies and a lot of bizarre things he did with his cult. The song starts off with Joey DeMaio's crystal clear bass, Ross the Boss on guitar and an orchestral feeling it gives off which shortly moves onto a bass solo. The verse soon begins with Eric Adams singing about Jim Jones who claimed to have been Jesus and the people asking about his individuality. Eric Adams has a great vocal range and with that he sounds high and mighty with the chorus. The song provides a marching riff as well as a rocking solo which are the ingredients Manowar needed to make an epic closure for Sign of the Hammer. This along with Battle Hymn, Bridge of Death and Blood of the Kings are how Manowar should end their albums.

Week 14: Rhapsody (of Fire) - On the Way to Ainor

The artist: Heavy metal with strong orchestral elements with a multi-album concept using fantasy settings? Oh hell yes! Rhapsody (of Fire) are well recognised for their powerful orchestral elements, Luca Turilli's over the top guitar performance and of course making a strong focus on fantasy tales. If you're a sucker for anything medieval-related like me, you'll feel right at home with Rhapsody. For anyone else, your mileage may vary. Some really love the band for who they are, others hate them for who they are. Rhapsody aren't for everyone but they're awesome for those who can appreciate their music. Even if you're not particular fond of these guys, you have to give them credit for getting Christopher Lee to narrate on the albums in The Dark Saga. You'd think each band member would have had to break an arm and a leg just to get him to contribute to their albums.

The album: The Frozen Tears of Angels is Rhapsody's comeback album after being on suspension due to a dispute with Joey DeMaio of Manowar. Not sure what went wrong with him but we should be glad Rhapsody are no longer with DeMaio's record label Magic Circle Music and are now being catered by Nuclear Blast. With the release of The Frozen Tears of Angels, it was clear Rhapsody were back with a vengeance. This album takes a much heavier approach of the band's music by being faster, heavier and harsher than before. It's like the band took all their aggression out on this album after the fall out with Joey DeMaio. You hear Fabio Lione screaming in Reign of Terror? That's how infuriated they were.

The song: On the Way to Ainor starts off right away with some fast riffage rocking alongside with the keyboards. Half a minute later Turilli calms down to make way for the first passage for the vocals with the flute in the background. Fabio Lione knows how to make these songs emotional and executes it very well before kicking it up a bit ready to rock with the whole band. The chorus easily shows the angrier side of Rhapsody's music (again, must have been because of the band suspension) but not on the same magnitude as Reign of Terror.

After the second chorus ends, the song falls into a solomania for two minutes by Luca Turilli and each of his solos during this section have to be some of the finest he's ever played on his guitar. The Frozen Tears of Angels has a lot of killer solos but there's something about the consecutive solos in this song that make them shine even brighter. The song then revisits the chrous one more time before it ends. For the somewhat different structure of song for Rhapsody, this is easily a highlight for not only the album but also the band's music in general.