Read Dylan Miles' Crap

For the most part, I won't be reviewing or commenting on any death metal or grindcore. Don't fret. That's where this man comes in. If you're tired of reading my reviews pertaining to music whose primary subject matter is fanciful unicorns and glorious steel, head on over to Meat Grinder's Metal Emporium.

Die Verbannten Kinder Evas - Dusk And Void Became Alive (2006)

I was introduced to this band about a week and a half ago. I was awe-stricken. I don't believe I've ever heard better music in this particular style. This band does not make metal. Die Verbannten Kinder Evas is Darkwave with heavy classical influence, as best as I can categorize them. It's very difficult for me to explain the genre of this band.

Die Verbannten Kinder Evas is Austrian, containing currently only two members, Christina Kroustali and Richard Lederer. The band was originally created in order to create a more toned-down alternative for two of the members of Summoning, an Austrian atmospheric black metal band.

All of this is really beside the fact that this album completely and utterly kills. There is no heavy guitar. The drums are used sparingly. They seemed to have abandoned their more overtly classical sound for a far more Gothic inspired form of Darkwave, which I think is brilliant. The music is very brooding and melancholic. This is music to think to, not to rock to.

Translated to English, Die Verbannten Kinder Evas means "The Exiled Children of Eve". Each song on this album is haunting and beautiful. Yes, I realize that made me sound like a fag. No, I don't care. I'm currently listening to Catharsis, an instrumental piano track that is absolutely mind blowing. It starts out slowly and gradually gains momentum. It's extremely hard to take this song and put it to words. It is, without a doubt, the greatest culminating track on any album I have ever heard.

This album is basically perfect. When there are vocals, they're done tastefully. Mostly operatic, Kroustali and Lederer make fantastic vocal trade offs that fit songs perfectly. I think the broad range of Kroustali's vocals are really tested in the song Winter's Night. This song also happens to be my favorite song of the album. The drums used are simple and repetitive, making the song seem as though it were the theme to the beginnings to a battle scene. It's a song that's very synthy. If you're not a fan of synthesizers, stop reading this and listen to Cock and Ball Torture instead.

Overall, if I wasn't so lazy, I'd probably go back and add this album to my top 10 albums of '06 as either #1 or #2. It's simply stunning, and I recommend it to anyone that wants something to sit down to that actually makes them think.

Eluveitie Interview

This is a very brief interview I had with Chrigel Glanzmann, frontman of the recently created Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie. Here's a brief overview of the band for anyone that hasn't heard them.

Eluveitie formed in 2002 in Switzerland. They're folk metal, which means much of their music is influenced by Celtic folk music, and they make great use of these influences. Eluveitie's sound is created through the use of bagpipes, flutes, whistles, mandola, hurdygurdy, violin, gaita, and the other instruments synonymous with metal. Their debut album, Spirit, was released in 2006 and should have been in my top 10 list, as it destroyed. So, here it is.

-First of all, I want to thank you for the opportunity for this interview and I want to start off by talking about your first album. Spirit represents the new wave of folk metal. How did the basic idea for Eluveitie come about? What are your largest influences, metal and otherwise?

Chrigel: Hard to say. The idea is actually very old. I had it in mind almost 15 years ago. I guess it comes from intensely enjoying and listening to both – folk music and metal. So, both kinds of music are influencual the same way.

-Eluveitie utilizes perhaps the largest range of musical instruments of any band in metal today, from the fiddle to the hurdygurdy to the irish flute. How did this come to be, this idea for a folk metal band with such a broad range of instrumentation?

Chrigel: I just love all those instruments, haha. When I founded Eluveitie, it was really clear from the very beginning, that none if them should miss. Furthermore it surely comes from the customs in Celtic folk music itself. Me, but also other members of the band, also play in pure folk music bands besides Eluveitie. There it’s very usual to follow a ancient melody or whatever with a pretty broad range of instruments. For example: The combination of fiddle, bagpipe (Uilleann Pipes) and Tin Whistle – to build the “melody register”, accompanied by guitar/mandola, ect. - is actually very traditional and usual in Celtic folk music.

-How do you think metal has progressed over the years from more simplistically styled bands like Black Sabbath to today's complex and innovative bands like yourselves and bands of the like?

Chrigel: Personally I think it’s not predominantly the “complexity” that grew, but more the “proficiency”. Or better said, the musical standard has grown. This is in my opinion a very natural development for any new kind of music (metal exits for some decades now, so it’s actually a very young music style). Classical music like we know it today (Beethooven for example) can be pretty complex and elaborated. But it actually arose from kinda folk music. If you check out early “classical music”, baroque music, then you realise that it’s still much more “folkier” and more “primitive” than the stuff that was composed 100 years later. And the same happens with metal music as well. This is normal. 30 years ago, it was okay for a metal song to just shred two or three simple powercords down the fingerboard of your guitar. It was enough, for it was something new – it was loud, strong and the sound of a distorted guitar was still unknown then. But the human ear develops easily and the demands grow quickly. If you compare young newcomer-bands of today and such in 1980, the differences of the playing abilities and the virtuosity in terms of composing, ect. are immense. But this is just a natural “evolution” I think.


-The melodic aspects of your music, most notably in songs like The Song of Life and Your Gaulish War, definitely are stemmed from your incorporation of more unconventional instruments. How do you decide which instrument to use in different songs? Also, I'm curious, what instrument was exactly used for
the melody in both of those songs?

Chrigel: Can’t really explain how this is decided. It just “happens”. Sometimes a whistle just simply “matches” the best for a leading melody and sometimes it’s rather the fiddle that fits the best. And so on. In both of the songs you mentioned, there is a leading folk melody, which is played synchronically (with one octave in beween of course) by a Tin Whistle and a Low Whistle (or an Irish wooden flute). In both parts, the Whistles are “accompanied" by a pretty simply and “earthy” melodyline played on the fiddle.


-How do you write your music? Are the guitar tracks laid down first with the string sections added in later or is there a certain method you use?

Chrigel: Can’t exactly say this. It’s really different from song to song. Sometimes a guitar riff comes to mind, sometimes it’s a folk melody first. Ofthen the writing process for a song begins with a folk tune or theme, yes. But this is not the rule. And there’s no “certain method” used. Probably expect the emotional aspect. Long before a song is actually finished, I have a clear idea, of what it should sound like in the end… of what it should express, of what emotions it should rouse.


-What direction do you think folk metal is taking for the future, in these ever changing times?

Chrigel: Well, time will show. “Folk Metal” is a relatively new genre and until now it was for some years really underground stuff. Now (and I guess in the next few years) it might become more common (and for sure also more commercial). Here we have a probably pretty haughty goal and idea for Eluveitie. If you take black metal for example. Back in 1994 black metal was really “undergroundy”…it was almost kinda elitist or so. At that time the band Dimmu Borgir started as a usual black metal band. They developed a lot though. They don’t have much in common with what was called “black metal” 15 years ago. Therefore they’re hated by many disappointed “old-school” fans, yes. BUT: On the other hand the gained access to black metal for a broad audience! Bands like Dimmu Borgir made black metal presentable! And this is the same what is probably going on with Eluveitie. Folk/Pagan/Viking/Whatever metal is very “raw” since it’s beginning and it’s kinda “reserved” for a small scene, for some “freaks”. With bands like Eluveitie folk metal becomes a bit more “smoothed” (not = softer! ;)) and becomes more presentable.


-People have taken to your album with fantastic interest. Eluveitie is a breath of fresh air in a music scene that seems to be slowly stagnating. Do you think you may have paved the way for future bands in terms of incorporation of more obscure instruments?

Chrigel: Haha, “obscure instruments”! ;))) Well, yes I think (and hope!) so. Firstly because of what I mentioned above in the last answer. I hope, but I also believe that there will be a couple of bands/musicians that will follow that way of “opening” folk metal for a wider audience. Secondly because we showed, that it’s possible. Even only four years ago, here in Europe most “folk” metal bands just used keyboards for their folk parts. Now that is about to really change! Bevore Eluveitie, there never was (as far as I know, at least) a Metal band using a hurdy-gurdy for example. One just couldn’t really figure out and imagine how this would sound and if it would work at all. Now we all see that it works and that it can sound cool. And so I hope there will be other metal bands using hurdy-gurdys… and most of all I hope that there will be bands using many other, not yet common instruments! What I would really wish, for example, are (north and south) American bands, that begin to explore the roots, the musical roots and customs of their original inhabitants. Sepultura/Soulfly have partly done this. Imagine how cool this ic and instruments… and if there would grow kinda “Centralamerican folk metal” or something out of it, haha! This would be really fascinating!


I left his responses complete as they were sent to me because I'm not going to be a grammar Nazi. I'm also sure Chrigel's alot better at speaking English than I am at speaking German. I thought this was a pretty cool experience, so I'll probably do it with other bands in the future. Everyone needs to go listen to Eluveitie's album because it kicks powerful ass and also because they're some awesome dudes for letting me interview them.

Mastodon: Most boring band ever?

So, what the fuck is with Mastodon? Am I the only person that doesn't get it? Please tell me this isn't true. The old people are pleased with their eclectic sound and the young, women's pants wearing teens are happy with their easy marketability and lame faux-hawk wearing front man. But what's the big deal? What's the catch? I listened to Leviathan, I listened to Blood Mountain. I tell you, they are huge heaping piles of mediocrity.

Each song I've had the misfortune of hearing has followed a simplistic structure that they basically repeat throughout the agonizing whole of it. Blood And Thunder very well could be the most repetitive, stupidly arranged piece of music I've ever heard. It's not completely horrible, it's just not worth the sinful amounts of praise it gets from seemingly every person that's a fan of heavy music. Everywhere I look, people lose their minds if I say I'm not down with Mastodon. Most of their music is just..well..it's just there. There is nothing remarkable about it.

As far as I'm concerned, this band is another phase. They're not revolutionizing the genre, like everyone seems to think they are. I'm sure whoever's reading this, namely nobody, is thinking that Blood Mountain is a step ahead in technicality. And, they'd be right. It's a more technical album, but it screams "We're trying to sound better at our instruments than we really are". People also seem to think Mastodon is progressive metal. These people are wrong. These people need to be hanged. These people need to be beaten to death with a giant phallus. Blood Mountain is a step in the right direction, I'll admit. But it still sounds painfully average to me.

So, stop fellating Mastodon, everyone. It makes you look stupid.

My Belated Top 10 of 2006!

So, here it is, my top 10 of 2006, while it's a bit late. That doesn't change its awesome pertinence.

10. Vanden Plas - Christ 0

I stumbled upon this album several months ago on a download website. I was completely taken aback. Vanden Plas is a German progressive metal band formed in the mid-1980s. On a suggestion that it was very much like Adagio, and band I am very fond of, I took to it. Its title track, Christ 0, is splendid progressive metal. The entire album is just very well structured. I became an instant fan and Christ 0 gained a spot in my Top Ten of 2006.

9. Unexpect - In A Flesh Aquarium

Unexpect is a Canad ian band whose genre can only be described as something along the lines of avant-garde extreme metal. Their style is extremely unstructured and hectic. Utilizing violin, heavy guitar, piano, and vocals both female and male, this band is a force to be reckoned with. While In A Flesh Aquarium is not their only album, I believe it to be their most impressive. It may be the most impromptu, strange music I've ever heard, save Stalaggh. This, however, is a good thing. Fantastic album.

8. Estradasphere - Palace of Mirrors

Estradasphere is an American experimental / avant-garde band whose sound can't really be described within the true realms of metal. Much of this album doesn't contain much distorted guitar at all, but rather a great deal of symphonic and elegant instrumentals, most notably the song Palace of Mirrors. Another one of my favorite songs on the album, Flower Garden of an Evil Man, is quite brooding to start with, but develops into a very complex song. The entire album is a masterpiece and I find it to be great thinking music.

7. Outworld - Outworld

Outworld is an American progressive metal band formed by Rusty Cooley. If you don't know who Rusty Cooley is, he is the king of wank; the sultan of unnecessarily technical solo guitar. His solo shred album may be the single most technical album ever, aside from MAB's No Boundaries. The trouble with Rusty is that he can't make good bands. Book of Reflections was, in my opinion, a pile of steaming crap. Outworld did something right, though. This album managed to be heavy and still utilize Rusty's sinfully fast fretwork, all whilst maintaining a tasteful sound. The singer for Outworld is also top notch. Solid, solid album.

6. Diablo Swing Orchestra - The Butcher's Ballroom

One of the most unique albums I've ever heard. Diablo Swing Orchestra is a Swedish avant-garde metal band who utilizes operatic female vocals heavily in their music. Their songs are delightfully unstructured and in many cases feature the violin. On top of this, most notably in the song Poetic Pitbull Revolutions, the trumpet is used. This album is one of the most innovative things I've ever heard. I recommend it to anyone with an open mind who's looking for something new.

5. Aghora - Formless

I already sang the praises of this album in my previous entry. This album is genius. I still haven't stopped listening to it. Again, Aghora is American progressive metal with female vocals. The vocals aren't quite like Diablo Swing Orchestra's, however. They're far less operatic and "manageable" than DSO. This album is very well rounded. They cover the progressive aspects of the music very well while not overdoing it at all. Well done.

4. Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death

Iron Maiden is a band that needs absolutely no introduction. But, for those that don't know, which is basically nobody, Iron Maiden is a British NWOBHM band that happen to be the most influential band in the history of recorded metal, save maybe Black Sabbath. This is their latest album, and I'll be the first to say it's something that needs to grow on you. Met with much dissent, A Matter of Life and Death, followed their new trend of epic metal. The band played the album in its entirety in their 2006 US tour, which I was lucky enough to attend. Iron Maiden's new album is a misunderstood masterpiece that deserves all the praise it gets.

3. Manticora - The Black Circus, Part 1: Letters

Manticora is a progressive / power metal band from Denmark. They're also the gayest looking people on the planet. Who would have known they could produce such blindingly awesome music? There are alot of prog/power acts lately, but these guys stand out. Fantastic guitar work, accompanied by stellar drum speed, and extreme vocals. I find myself listening to this album over and over again on several occasions. It's one of those albums you can listen to all the way through without hesitation.

2. Persuader - When Eden Burns

Persuader is a Swedish power / thrash metal band formed in the late 90s. This is one of the best power metal bands ever, without any contest at all. Nearly every song on each of their three albums is flawless. The vocals are not what one would call standard PM vocals. Jens Carlsson has some of the most unique vocals in metal and he makes great use of them on this album. It was extremely difficult for me to pick between this album and my first pick.

1. Blind Guardian - A Twist in the Myth

Blind Guardian is a German power metal band formed in the mid-1980s. They are the fathers of power metal; what every PM band strives to be. Fuck Helloween, Blind Guardian is the be all and end all of the genre. They are untouchable in their sound and style. A Twist in the Myth may be one of their finest releases. Every single song on the album is perfect. Hansi Kürsch continues to have the greatest voice in metal, creating, again, the most unique and powerful vocal harmonies I've ever heard. This album is also the first to feature Frederik Ehmke on drums. He seems to be a fine, fine fit. I had the privilege of seeing this band live in New York City in November. They played their new songs flawlessly. A Twist In The Myth is my top pick for albums of 2006.

Honorable Mention:
-Solitude Aeturnus - Alone
-Buckethead - The Elephant Man's Alarm Clock
-Canvas Solaris - Penumbra Diffuse
-Communic - Waves of Visual Decay
-Cloudscape - Crimson Skies
-Zero Hour - Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond
-Twisted Into Form - Then Comes Affliction To Awaken The Dreamer
-Andromeda - Chimera

There you have it. I realize it's a bit late, but I wanted to completely make my mind up.

Aghora - Formless (2006)

Released sometime in 2006, Aghora's newest album entitled Formless came completely out of left field. I thought I had already decided on my album of the year for 2006, but now I have to seriously reconsider. This album has not left Windows Media Player for the past week and a half, and I'll explain why.

Aghora is an American progressive metal band that conspicuously lacks keyboards. Initially, that might put some people off because they can't get into anything that's not completely muddled with symphonic wankery. On a side note, symphonic prog/power metal is getting on my nerves. We seriously don't need another Time Requiem. These bands need to get more creative.

Another thing that might turn away some of Aghora's listeners is the fact that they're fronted by a woman. Yes, a woman. In metal. If you're a fan of death metal, you might want to stop reading now, because you're likely to become infuriated by this concept. Now, women aren't all that uncommon in metal nowadays. Hell, Ayreon's been doing it for quite some time and there are hundreds of gothic metal bands that are female fronted. However, there are very few straight up progressive metal bands with females on vocals. That's where Aghora takes over.

This album isn't Spastic Ink. It's not going to blow your mind with technicality and it's not going to make you feel bad about your musical proficiency. It's sensible prog, and it's brilliant. Each track on Formless is a masterpiece in itself. I can't stress just how much I love this album. One of the more popular songs on the album, 'Atmas Heave', starts out extremely energetically after the rather simple and short 'Lotus'.

What follows is complete genius. Nearly every song on this album is flawless, with my favorite probably being 'Garuda' because of its extremely shred-influenced sound. Now, that will probably change within the coming days, as this album will get increasingly more listens. All I can say at this point is that I need more of this band's material. Immediately.