If I were to pick the end all be all of progressive death metal albums, I would go with Portal of I. If I were to pick the end all be all of death metal – Or metal in general, mind you – albums, I would go with Portal of I. If I were to pic… You get the point.
I’ve been addicted to this album for so long it’s become unhealthy, the way the album is structured is perfect, the way the lyrics flow oh so amazingly with the music is perfect, the way the music is simply some of the most elegant music I’ve listened to in a while is outstanding. While there’s only one addition to the traditional metal formula -if there ever was one- the violin work by Tim Charles compliments the music, and even takes lead at most times, but it never gets in the way, when Tim Charles’ work takes lead it never overshadows anything else, every other instrument compliments the new lead, and similarly whenever bassist -Holy crap is he good- Brendan Brown or guitarist Benjamin Baret or also drummer Dan Presland take lead, every one else follow in and work together to make what I truly consider the most elegant progressive death metal album of probably, well, ever.
I had honestly never heard of Vesperia until Morgan Rider sent me an email with their latest album, and boy am I glad he did. Considering my love for epic music in general, and death metal in particular, this album was a breath of fresh air.
An Olden Tale is Vesperia’s (surprisingly enough) second full length album, and I say surprisingly because I honestly thought these guys would have had a long line of albums to have expertly crafted something as epic as An Olden Tale.
The album greets you with an atmospheric intro that sets the mood going into the onslaught of folk music to follow with the tracks seamlessly going into the next keeping the same atmosphere throughout the entire album.
Vesperia proceed then to bombard you throughout the album with tight riffage and drumming, with guttural growls you are more likely to find in technical death metal bands rather than folk inclined bands, which contrary to what your first instincts may suggest, actually works really well with Vesperia’s music. Most of the clean vocals work and compliment the gutturals really nice, however in very few cases the clean vocals just didn’t sound right to my ears mainly in Home For A Rest. You’ll also find some harsh vocals and screams mixed in for good measure, which only further prove the vocalist’s versatile voice range.
Guitar work is splendid throughout the album, Frankie Caracci and Casey Elliott do a great job in moving this album from merely a folk metal album to more of a melodic death album as well, which only adds to the concoction of genres An Olden Tale can comfortably fit into. Notable guitar work can be heard in the album titled track, An Olden Tale, which also includes bearded men cheering with mugs of ale in their hands. Beer (Because beer.)
The drum work by Cory Hofing is equally splendid, offering just the right amount of blasts, jazzy transitions, and powerful beats that just make you want to go pick up a double headed ax and go slay yourself a dragon or two.
Nothing much to say about the bass in here, mostly the bass line follows the guitar line (which is impressive still) with the exception of the bass interlude in An Olden Tale. Morgan Rider does deliver nicely on his instrument.
Mixing folk, death, and black metal in a beautiful medley that will keep your ears entertained throughout the entire length of the album. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Amon Amarth, TYR, Korpiklaani, and Immortal (yep, Immortal), the album presents such weird elements all mixed in together creating an even weirder combination that mainly works great.
An easier way to think of Vesperia’s An Olden Tale is that it is the lovechild that resulted from Amon Amarth, Korpoklaani and Immortal having some sort of a threesome. Which is a lot more awesome than what I just said makes it seem.
You all probably know that when I mention metal, I mean fucking business (Proof).
Now that we have that out of the way, Raymond William, Fanatik’s own guitarist and curator of the thousand rabbits museum has just announced the title, along with the album art (made by yours truly) and some riffage influences (It’s Mark Tremonti, if you’re wondering) of his new track.
You can see the album art below, with the actual song soon to follow.
Hello, people! To those of you who celebrated easter yesterday, happy easter and stuff, to those of you who will celebrate it next week, well, happy easter and stuff.
I’ll be starting things off with a song I got introduced to through this (awesome) website, sadly though, it only works in the US, anyway, here’s the song:
Fucking awesome song, ey? Makes me laugh every single time! Funny as balls, I tell ya! Too far? Yeah, thought so, well, onto the next track!
This track right here, I’ve been told, is nothing all that special, and that I’ve been hyping it way too much, but I don’t give a shit, it’s awesome, it’s way primal, and it’s just so, brutal in a very deep/primal way.
Another musician I got introduced to very recently, has, actually, nothing to do with metal, she’s a violinist that is frankly quite hot, anyway, enjoy.
Last, but definitely not least, for all you Starcraft fans, here’s a little nice treat.
I’m going to start something new here and call it “Spam Tuesday” where I drop some pristine “A” grade crap your way! Sounds awesome, I know.
This Spam Tuesday, I’ll be bombarding your earholes with some epic underground musicians that totally deserve the recognition, starting with *Drum roll*:
FanatiK! (because self promotion is the shit!) This band consists of two dudes, my self, and some other dude on production duties, we just released our first track, listen to it or get assassinated.
Next on Spam Tuesday, we have the guy who produced FanatiK’s first track (oh look, a flying bra!) Michael Maurice! This dude makes some really gnarly EDM shit that is absolutely worth your time.
Next up, we have a great death metal band from Baltimore, MD, named “Alhazred“, with this guy as their drummer, and in my experience with music, whenever a band has a drummer that looks suspiciously a lot like a viking, they’re bound to be awesome.
So now that we’ve covere the west, and the mid east, we shall venture to India, the land of the epic Vishal J. Singh and his band, Amogh Symphony (seriously, if you haven’t given this guy a listen, you’re missing out… A LOT).
Last, but definitely not least, we have the guy that makes almost all bassists feel like they should just stop playing because of how good he is, Colin Waldo!
Metal Geek 