Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Arguably it could be said that Absolution, Muse’s third studio album, was the recording that announced the band onto the wider world and certainly from the moment Absolution was released they haven’t looked back.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Dance of Death, as album titles go, it’s a fair one to place on an album cover especially by arguably the U.K.’s leading Heavy Metal band enjoying a new renaissance with Adrian Smith and lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson back within the helm. It conjurors up thoughts of a last waltz, which thankfully will be suspended for as long as possible, of a macabre game with the Grim Reaper, or in this case the band’s long time mascot Eddie doing a plausible impression of the figure in black as if taken from a gruesome version of the film The Seventh Seal, as Death itself holds out its hand and asks you to join together.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *
As Metallica’s St. Anger turns ten years old it is worth remembering that upon release it polarised views of critics and fans alike. There were those that admired the stark honesty that Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and especially vocalist James Hetfield tried to convey after many years away from the studio. For others it was a departure they couldn’t cope with, the hard beating disturbed heart that was evident throughout the metal beasts first four albums had at first been replaced by a radio friendly outlook that bought extra fans to the band but also grinded the teeth of those who had come to expect a blistering hardcore sound on any album and then the further departure as they went more commercial. Something was lost between …And Justice For All, the so called Black album, Load/Reload and then in 2003 the album that sounds as clear as mud, St Anger.
The distinctive and dramatic style of The White Stripes was probably captured at its very best on the 2003 album Elephant. Full of damning humour, musical trickery, agitated fidgetiness, dirty bass lines and a band at their creative peak, Elephant stands out as one of the real highlights of 2003, a moment where the rock rule book was not just taken to task but publicly admonished, berated in front of its peers and finally told to get a life. Dedicated to the death of the sweetheart, the music is all consuming and leaves the listener breathless, as all good sweethearts should.
For Evanescence it was perhaps the biggest moment in their recording career so far and ten years on from the debut release of the incredible album Fallen, it remains a defining piece of music that doesn’t let go of the listener’s emotions and sensibilities untill long after the music has faded into the cold light of morning.
When listening to Tori Amos it almost feels that you are joining her on a spiritual journey in which she alone knows the final destination and she will lead you blindfold past the final signpost whilst holding your heart carefully as she goes. Such is the timeless beauty of Scarlett’s Walk that it easily ranks in the top three studio releases by the enigmatic piano player.
Originally published by L.S. Media. September 23rd 2012.
For fans of Peter Gabriel, Up,the seventh solo studio released by the ex-lead singer of Genesis, may be a hard one to attune to, to empathise with or even in some cases like.
This seems harsh on a man whose innovative approach to music has seen him lauded and applauded. From his early days with Genesis, through the grand scale of such works as Supper’s Ready, Selling England By The Pound and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and into his own solo career with the eponymous self titled albums and finally the riveting and extraordinary So, he touched so many minds and hearts with his incredible lyrics and mind for the utter dramatic and search for some sort of mythical musical lost city of gold.