Lightning Review: Book of Shadows II

Book of Shadows II – Zakk Wylde

The mighty (in so many ways) Zakk Wylde released the sequel to his acoustic album Book of Shadows. This new album is great! I am a fan of acoustic music and this album definitely plays into that desire for acoustic music.

Zakk Wylde, being the great guitar hero that he is, displays  his talent in the solos within these songs. The album is a bit lengthy with its 14 songs. Wylde is known for his shredding; listen to the latest Black Label Society album which demonstrates his prowess. Book of Shadows II allows him to show his songwriting abilities that which go beyond just metal. Each song has this very similar tone that is translated throughout the album. This feeling is not a detriment in the flow of the album and can make it feel as if you were listening to one long acoustic song. The problem I see in his format style is that there really is not a lot of differentiation to the untrained ear and most of the songs don’t stand out from each other.

I would like to note that one of the bonus tracks on the album contains a version of the song “Sleeping Dogs” that features Corey Taylor on vocals. That version of the track gives the song a really cool dynamic sound as Taylor and Wylde alternate on vocals. So, it’s no wonder that they used that version in the music video.

Overall, the tone on this album is very mellow and in my opinion I find Book of Shadows II to be a cool and calm listening experience which offers quality music. I suggest listening to this album on a nice summer evening.  

Top 3 Songs:

1) “Sleeping Dogs”

2) “The Levee”

3) “Forgotten Memory” 

You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter. You can also check out their official website for tour dates and other events.

Lightning Review: Metal Ressistance

Metal Resistance – Babymetal

Babymetal. Need I say more? There is a stigma around this group in that are they truly metal? Really what I think it comes down to is that some people don’t like j-pop with their metal. For me while I don’t care for j-pop, but I don’t hate it either. Let’s be honest here, if Rob Halford, The Metal God, can praise this group, there’s got to be something to them. So how does their album stack up with other metal that is currently on the market? Well let’s find out!

Immediately upon listening to this album, the first thing I thought of was, “this sounds a lot like DragonForce!” and that’s because two of the members of DragonForce collaborated on the first song. The following song “KARATE” which is one of the more memorable songs on the album with a more groove metal feel. The album turns more of a smorgasbord of songs with some ups and downs. The album fuses many elements of Heavy Metal and facets of J-Pop.

Babymetal’s second album Metal Resistance continues on with the fusion of j-pop and metal genres which was established in their first album. They’re continuing to incorporate other sub-genres of metal, for example power metal and groove metal into their music. Overall the album offers some hooks to grab you, but ultimately not enough for me. The genres that this group is trying to fuse into their music style, j-pop and metal, may turn some people off so that some people are not going to give this band a listen. I think those people should listen to this music first before forming a preconceived opinion.

Top 3 Songs:

1) “KARATE”

2) “Road of Resistance”

3) “THE ONE”

You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter. You can also check out their official website for tour dates and other events.

Lightning Review: Theories of Flight

Theories of Flight – Fates Warning

Fates Warning released their 12^th studio album earlier this year, Theories of Flight. I am not that familiar with this band, although their album, Awaken the Guardian, is one of my favorite progressive metal albums.

This album, Theories of Flight, as some slower parts which are balanced out by the faster and heavier songs. Most of the songs on the first half of the album are very memorable with, “Seven Stars”, being the song I think about when I want to listen to this album. The second half of the album is where it starts to drop off and go weird. What I mean is, the final song which is also the title track, sounds more like a space ship docking and departing in outer space than an actual song.

If you bought the deluxe edition version of the album you also received a second disc with six acoustic tracks. Half of these songs are covers and the other half are different versions of their own songs. Overall the second disc is a nice addition to the album and enjoyable to listen to if you dig acoustic.

Fates Warning crafted an album that they can call all their own and it shows. Theories of Flight is a pretty good album with some great songs. Personally, I really like this album much more than Dream Theater’s new album The Astonishing. This album is definitely one to check out and for all of you progressive metal and rock fans this is an album not to miss.

Top 3 Songs:

1) “Seven Stars”

2) “The Light and Shade of Things”

3) “SOS”

You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter. You can also check out their official website for tour dates and other events.

Lightning Review: Diamond Head

Diamond Head – Diamond Head

Diamond Head, the only way you probably would have known of this band back in the day is if you were a frequent concertgoer, a metalhead and lived in Europe. The 2010 DVD concert of the Big Four (Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica) in which the members of the Big Four came out and performed Diamond Head’s song “Am I Evil?” gave Diamond Head worldwide exposure in the mainstream the metal scene. This year they actually released a new studio album with new vocalist Rasmus Bom Andersen who joined the band in 2014.

How does Diamond Head’s new self-titled album stack up with this year’s competition? In my opinion, Diamond Head is not monumental like other classic albums, but this album has some great riffs and hooks. They don’t have the big production that more successful bands do. The band’s sound is refined and un-bloated and their tunes are pleasant to the ear. Diamond Head relies on their laurels of good riffs, melody and hooks to create a compelling listening experience.

Diamond Head is a pretty good metal album that shows that this band still has relevancy and can write good songs. Definitely give this album a listen.

Top 3 Songs:

1) “Wizards Sleeve”

2) “Set My Soul on Fire”

3) “Silence”

You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter. You can also check out their official website for tour dates and other events.

Lightning Review: Flotsam and Jetsam

Flotsam and Jetsam – Flotsam and Jetsam

The classic thrash metal band, Flotsam and Jetsam, are back with their self-titled 12^th studio album. It has been about 4 years since their last release and 30 years since their classic debut album. One might ask how does this new material stack up against their catalogue, is the music still relevant, and how good is this new album?

From what I’ve read on line from some hardcore fans of Flotsam and Jetsam, this album is a return to their original style and plays to the strengths of the band. Personally, I’m only familiar with their debut album Doomsday for the Deceiver and this album seems like it would have been great if it had been released about 20-25 years ago. Actually, upon release iTunes had the album year of release listed as 1993 which later was corrected to 2016. I saw the YouTube video of this band’s single “Iron Maiden” and thus I learned about the release of their latest album. I don’t think this album will be the album to break Flotsam and Jetsam into the mainstream or into the main circles for most metal fans, but I can see this band going out and getting some good exposure by touring with other well-known bands.

In my opinion, this album is alright as some of the songs for me are a bit forgettable. There are some riffs in here that definitely stand out and it has an old-school thrash metal sound. Most of the album seem to drown out into the background with blips of interest with some of the songs. For hardcore Flotsam and Jetsam fans this will be your bread and butter. If you want to hear what old-school thrash sounds like, then definitely check out this album. Otherwise, it has a few standout songs to take a  listen to.

Top 3 Songs:

1) “Iron Maiden”

2) “Taser”

3) “Creeper”

You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter. You can also check out their official website for tour dates and other events.

Discovering Metal: Death Angel

The Ultra-Violence

The current lineup from left to right: Rob Cavestany, Damien Sisson, Mark Osegueda, Will Carroll & Ted Aguilar

So far, this year I have done many mainstays of Heavy Metal music. Starting with Iron Maiden and most recently Metallica. Now,I would like to talk about a band that isn’t as well known. In the Thrash Metal genre, these guys are one of the best and unfortunately get overshadowed by the Big 4 of Thrash Metal.

Death Angel is band that was founded in 1982 and started to pick up steam in 1985 with their Kill As One demo. Since that time and up to today they’ve released 8 albums, have toured around the world, and had broken up for about 10 years from 1991 to 2001; in 2001 they reformed for a benefit concert. Aside from their earlier accomplishments, I feel that Death Angel has created their best album to date with their most recent album The Evil Divide being one of my favorites.

Death Angel is from the San Francisco Bay area. This was one of the epicenters of Thrash Metal known as Bay Area Thrash. Many bands including Exodus and Testament still call it home. So, with the large amount of Thrash Metal being produced, Death Angel is tried and true to their surroundings and carry that torch. A couple things to be known about Death Angel are that when the band was formed the members were very young with most of them being in their early to mid-teens and also that members of the original lineup of Mark Osegueda, Rob Cavestany, Dennis Pepa, Gus Pepa and Andy Galeon were all related.

What really makes Death Angel unique, more than those little fun facts, is that they play Thrash Metal with melody in their music. This differentiated them from other thrash bands that were going faster and heavier. One thing I will say is that due to their break-up, Death Angel never when through that phase of going more commercial or changing their style to match the times.

I found out about this band in 2014 when I was listening to S.O.D. (Stormtroopers of Death) and Exodus. At that time, I was already loving the speed and heaviness of Thrash Metal, but Death Angel brought some color into my palate of music. With the melodic elements, it gave me a renewed scene of love for melody in my Metal music. Then I went and got into King Diamond, but that is another story.

Top 5 albums:

1) The Dream Calls for Blood

2) The Evil Divide

3) Relentless Revolution

4) The Ultra-Violence

5) Killing Season