Blind Rage by Accept - Album Review

Remember Iron Maiden?

They were legends of their genre. While Black Sabbath may started heavy metal, Iron Maiden defined it. Their sound, music, and energy are almost universally loved by metal enthusiasts.

So what if there was another band that is just as old as Iron Maiden and sounds just as good as they did back then, today?

Ladies and gentlemen, Accept's latest album, Blind Rage.

***

Album: Blind Rage

Artist: Accept

Year of Release: 2014

Genre: Heavy Metal, Power Metal

***

Before going into detail, it should be noted that this entire review can be condensed into two words: Fuck yes.

There really is no better way to put it. Their level of energy exceeds any other release of this year so far by a landslide and it never dies down and it never gets repetitive. But how does a band do that? How can a band maintain such a high level of energy without getting boring?

The main reason is that while all of the songs have the same energy, each song incorporates elements from genres outside of the heavy/power metal foundation. For example, the opener, Stampede, perfectly sets the tone of a stampede by blending together doom and speed metal elements, while the following song, Dying Breed, takes a slower pace, and incorporates symphonic rock elements and even grooves a bit at times.

But there's more to Blind Rage than that. Everything in the band has a harmonizing accompaniment. There's the vocalist who, while admittedly is not a Bruce Dickinson, enhances the entire sound in the same way Dickinson did for Maiden, with the high screaming vocals and pure energy, but the backup vocalist enriches the sound debatably more than the lead does, especially in the refrain of songs like Dark Side of My Heart. The same dynamic applies to the guitarists, who play so well off of each other in the speed-metal song Trail of Tears. This really does give the band a more full sound than many other heavy metal groups.

The fifth song, Wanna Be Free, starts off a bit soft, but quickly builds up to what is easily the "anthem" of the album. Like all heavy metal anthems, it takes a slower pace but cranks up the energy to the max by the time the song reaches its climax. The lyrics are also really easy to want to sing along to:

If we could heed the cries and unbind the ties,

We all wanna be free.

Break the barricades, open prison gates,

We all wanna be free.

Tear down the wall, we want it all,

We all wanna be free.

If we stand together, we're all gonna be free.

It's hard to not say that this song is the best of the album, but "Stampede" and the song that comes after this anthem, 200 Years, both come pretty close as well. The vocal harmonization in that song just works so well, and the riffs in the guitars are catchy and fun to listen to.

Bloodbath Mastermind takes a bit too long to start, but when it starts, it's a pretty great song, incorporating some viking metal elements while maintaining the heavy and power metal foundation, as always. It's the second longest song of the album at six minutes,  but it doesn't really overstate its welcome either.

The only real issue with the album is that it is a bit too long. A typical heavy metal release of yesteryear would have around eight or nine tracks, and each song would last about four minutes. This album has 11 tracks, each about five or six minutes long. The last three songs are great and hold up well, but if one were to sit and listen to the whole album, the energy might tire him or her out around the time you hit the second "anthem" of the album, From the Ashes We Rise. It's a great song, but it's easily overshadowed by "Wanna be Free", and it's the only song that really doesn't stand out as much.

That track ends on a pretty conclusive note, but the the album keeps going with The Curse, which takes some classic rock-'n'-roll elements and makes a pretty fantastic song. This song would have been better off on an entirely different album, however, because it's hard for a listener to appreciate how good this song is after listening to so many other high-energy songs before.

Once again, that track ends pretty conclusively, but then Final Journey kicks in, bringing back the energy and speed of the opener. It's a perfect way to end the album, but at this point this album starts to be the "Return of the King" of metal albums, and just refuses to end. The song is fantastic, however, and it's one of the best tracks on the album, although it isn't as good as the opener, "200 Years", or "Wanna Be Free". If this song closed out the album and the two tracks prior were moved to a later project, this album would easily compete with some of the classic Iron Maiden albums we all still love to this day.

It has to be stressed, however, that while the album can get tiring, it doesn't get boring. Sometimes there can just be too much of a good thing, and this album is just that. Each song stands out on its own as a fantastic piece of music, but the whole package is a bit overwhelming. It's not as bad as The Living Infinite by Soilwork - that's for another review - but it still is a bit too long.

All minor critiques aside, this album is still one of the most energetic releases of the year and it will certainly bring listeners back to the adolescent age of heavy metal.

***

Video:

<It'll be here, be patient>

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/blind-rage/id895308281

Website: http://www.acceptworldwide.com

Legend by Witchcraft - Album Review

Some people just don't like music that other people like. A lot of the people who like rap music just don't understand the swing of jazz and funk and a lot of the metalheads just never will understand the basic-yet-catchy nature of typical modern pop music.

But then a group emerges that everyone understands and loves. Back in the 1960s it was the Beatles. In the 1970s it was Led Zeppelin. In the 1980s it was Michael Jackson. In the 2010s it is doubtful that Witchcraft will be that band, but their sound, while based in hard rock, is so universally impressive that it is nigh-impossible to at the very least say that Witchcraft is talented. They are a criminally underrated group that needs more attention.

Witchcraft's first, self-titled album was not too impressive, and their sophomore efforts, Firewood and The Alchemist, were decent, but Legend blows the other two out of the water, and if Witchcraft continues on the trail this album lays, they are sure to get even better.

***

Album: Legend

Artist: Witchcraft

Year of Release: 2012

Genre: Hard Rock / Heavy Metal

***

A characteristic of a really good album is that it impresses right from the start. While some albums build things up to a spectacular first impression, others just start rocking and never stop. With Legend, Witchcraft chose to take that route, and the first song, Deconstruction, does just that. It starts with a powerful hard rock medley that repeats a few times to open up the song. Then the song kicks into high gear with a great guitar riff backed up by the bass and rhythm guitar. But after that the lyrics kick in, and then things get really good. Despite originating in Northern Europe, their lyrics are perfectly clear and easy to understand, and great lyrics they are:

Say me Mister Officer, what is it that you want from me?

I'm just another brick in this fascist regime society,

I stand naked and abused.

Utopian idealists breaking ways for all to see

Deconstructed patterns manifest in broken helpless souls

Inspiration draws us all from amuse, abuse, and disconnect

Suspicion and coalition hold their hands when trust is gone,

Satan is amused.

The band clearly believes that something needs to change in their world. The lyrics show a clear distaste for the parliamentary monarchies of Norway and Sweden, and distrust of the police and similar officers. Beyond that, however, the fact that the lyrics are so easily understandable and interpretable gives this band a more mainstream sound than a hard rock band like Graveyard or a heavy metal band like Kyng or even some modern rap artists, to a degree.

Even without the lyrics, however, the songs work really well. So many modern artists use lyrics as a crutch to hold up the lazy and boring music behind it. Witchcraft doesn't do that, and show off clear musical prowess, especially in songs like the closer.

The album also succeeds with regard to variety, as the album does not just rock from the beginning to end. The band instead treats every song differently while placing them such that they flow into each other. The second song, Flag of Fate, for example, is slower than the opener, but it doesn't sacrifice the power that was demonstrated there. After that they sped things up a little with It's Not Because of You, but kept things a bit softer with a few nice hard rock riffs thrown in. The entire album plays out like this, and no song is out of place.

The band also has influences from all over the board. While hard rock and heavy metal are the base of most songs, soft rock elements are in some songs like the aforementioned "It's Not Because of You", and some stoner rock elements are evident in the song after it, An Alternative to Freedom, with its slower, more laid-back hard rock feel that defined bands like Nirvana. Led Zeppelin-style technical hard rock clearly played a part in influencing Ghost's House.

One of the most unique songs on the album is White Light Suicide, with its riff-based intro with finger-snapping in the background. Then it all stops for a second, and then continues as a softer song with some hard rock bits here and there.

The band dabbles with a triple feel with Democracy, to change things up. This one goes pretty slowly for a hard rock tune, but it doesn't sacrifice the energy and power either. In fact, "Democracy" is one of the heaviest songs on the album, and then perfectly follows it with the softest song on the album, Dystopia, a somber, deliberate tune that is very impressive, if a little repetitive at times.

The album closes with Dead End, an 11-minute technical hard rock opus that features a soft guitar riff that repeats in the background, and then picks up a bit after each verse. It starts to get a bit repetitive when around the three-minute mark the song changes into a soft acoustic feature that devolves into a repeating base figure with rough vocals behind it. What the band does here is really neat because when the vocals get really loud, the guitarists go into overdrive for a bit and then drop out to only the bass figure again. Around seven minutes in the song changes to a slow triple feel for the rest of the song. They do some really neat things here musically, but the end does drag on for a bit longer than it needed to. It's a great way to close the album....

...but they also threw in a bonus track, By Your Definition, which, sadly, is the only forgettable song on the album. It doesn't stand out at all, and it sounds almost as if the band wrote this song just because the album wasn't long enough. An album isn't too short unless it leaves listeners dissatisfied, and Legend was more than satisfying by its conclusion. This bonus track really was not needed.

Without the bonus, however, Legend is a fantastic package. It may not be the Led Zeppelin III of the modern era, but it still is one of the best hard rock / heavy metal albums of 2012, and that's still pretty damn good.

***

Music Video Sample:

<to come at a later date>

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/legend/id556077296

Website: http://www.nuclearblast.com/en/music/band/about/931546.witchcraft.html