Cynic's 'Carbon-Based Anatomy' - For Those Who Know

No aliens to the metal world, Florida's Cynic adopted a new perspective on progressive extreme metal and remain a fundamental part of technical metal history. The heart of the band is Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert who were part of Death for the seminal Human recording. Cynic released the universally-lauded Focus before disbanding in 1994. However, like many thrash acts from the eighties and early nineties, a reunion dawned in 2006. Traced in Air was the debut's successor, with material strong enough to be considered superior to Focus. Last year, the American due released Retraced, an EP containing alternative take on songs from Traced in Air, reformulated to embody a very modern and emotive rock shape, albeit with as much thoughtfulness as their original takes. The final track was new number 'Wheels Within Wheels', which shared the same musical DNA as the other tracks. This year, Cynic polarised opinion with Carbon-Based Anatomy, a EP bearing all new material very different to what adherents were expecting.

Carbon-Based Anatomy is essentially three full-length songs conjoined by three embellishing interludes. The most striking comparison to their older works is the complete erosion of any metal elements. Once bequeathed with death and thrash metal teeth, Cynic's music has embodied an idiosyncratic progressive rock form. Astral soundscapes and off beat drumming remain but the signature vocal decoder has been substituted for a clean Steven Wilson-esque vocal effort from Masvidal, as heard on Retraced. The solos are less unorthodox than the Focus days but the release comes across as a personal one, more interested in depicting emotive flares rather than metal complexity. The lyrics certainly feel more personal. From 'Box Up My Bones':

Haste to cure the old despair,
No antidote, still I repair.
Someone said that bird has no wings,
But I've seen it fly, I've seen it fly in dreams.


On my way to love someone,
On my way to love the one.

The level of atmosphere has been dramatically increased; Masvidal explains that this is due to an appreciation of the ambient works of Brian Eno and Eno's vast and lonesome atmospheres are evoked on this release. Additionally, in truly being progressive, the introductory 'Amidst the Coals' is from an Amazonian tribe's Icaro - a song said to have had healing properties.

This release is a sign of Cynic's maturity and a testament to their desire to do what they wish rather than be directed by trends or what the fans expect. Masvidal states that his music references his life and is naturally going to become "more interesting, expansive and colourful." [1]. Some detractors consider Carbon-Based Anatomy to be closer to an Aeon Spoke record than a Cynic one, but Aeon Spoke are more folk inclined and devoid of the celestial musings prominent in Cynic's music, including this EP. It is fair to conclude that the negative attention that plagues Carbon-Based Anatomy is predominantly from metalheads wishing for Death-hangover, interested in Cynic because of the shared members and are frustrated Cynic have no metal tendencies any more [2]. Masvidal stated that even in the early years, Cynic attracted may who listened to jazz and were completely ignorant to metal [1]. New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratcliff believes Cynic's music to be better understood outside of a metal vessel. Perhaps this is true.

The vigour of 'Veil of Maya' may be absent but the tenderness of 'Textures' remains. Either way, Masvidal does not intend for Cynic to be a nostalgia act so those desperate for the old Cynic should stick to Obscura. Or listen to Focus.


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[1] Metal Discovery interview with Paul Masvidal, 2011.
[2] A similar argument can be made for the split opinions on Opeth's Heritage album.

Life After Death: The Return to John Arch with Jim Matheos

Originally written for Soundshock.

In 2003 John Arch, most notable for his work with US veterans Fates Warning, recorded his last release – an EP entitled ‘A Twist of Fate’.  Until this year, Arch’s vocals have not been committed to record.  Elena Francis has a word with Arch, as he discusses what it was like reuniting with guitarist Jim Matheos for an exciting project.

“It was Jim and I,” Arch reflects.  “Although it has been a while, it has always been a comfortable working environment for me, so it was like two old friends [reuniting].  It wasn't until the studio when the drums were ready for

 recording where I met Bobby [Jarzombek, drummer] and that was like having an old friend after 20 minutes.”

It's with a great sigh of relief that the former Fates Warning man reveals that it's back to business as usual following a dry spell that has seen his old band not put out a full-length since 2004.  Mainman Jim Matheos’ original intention was to create the next Fates Warning release but because of the tight schedules of his band mates, it was impossible to make this a reality.  Fortunately not all is lost.  Prog metal fanatics worldwide have had some glory to bask in and it comes in the form of the dual effort of Arch/Matheos on 'Sympathetic Resistance’. 

Arch was very comfortable with the line up for ‘Sympathetic Resistance’ and the outcome of his pairing with Matheos.  Indeed, fans were very expectant to hear his return to music after a lengthy absence and their reaction was not disappointing. “It has been nothing short of amazing,” Arch says.  “The best part is that fans both new and old seem to be connecting with the music.  A big thank you to all the fans new and old – we went into this with no expectations, and certainly didn't expect this.”

The primary concern for those holding their breath for this release was the condition of Arch’s voice, after such a spell of inactivity.  “My singing voice remained dormant for I believe, 8 years.  So needless to say, that was for sure not a positive when it was time to start singing again. I had returned to life as usual after ‘A Twist of Fate’ enjoying my other passions such as riding and racing, mountain and road cycling, hiking and camping year round and of course making a living.  If Jim had not placed that call to me, this would not have happened.  The writing and the recording of the demos were happening as I was trying to build up my vocals. It was harder than I thought it was going to be this time.  At first my pitch was off and I had virtually no vibrato.  It was definitely a work in progress and now that I'm out of the studio and singing the songs all the way through, I know one thing for sure – I'll never learn.”

‘Sympathetic Resistance’ itself is vibrant, emotive and lively, instilled with complex heavy guitar riffs that are signature in contemporary prog metal acts, married with the

idiosyncrasies of later Fates Warning.  With its crisp sound and dynamic compositions, the album boldly portrays equally spirited album art – the silhouette of a figure engulfed in flame.  “The album cover is always another difficult venture and again we searched near and far,” Arch says.  “Jim and I liked these images mostly because they were intense and almost alive, emitting an explosion of emotion.  The photography is done using only exposure times and light which is fascinating in itself.” The decision behind the album’s title emanated from this same idea too, as Arch elaborates. “We searched high and low for a title for the album that would really incorporate the lyrical ideas with the intensity and movements of the music, and 'Sympathetic Resonance' worked nicely.  It is a musical term by definition, but with a little imagination you can draw so many parallels to its meaning to the human emotions and how we resonate with each other through our anger, fear, empathy and so on.”

Given Fates Warning’s inception as an 80's American power metal outfit, Arch/Matheos have been penned to play the prestigious Keep it True festival in Germany.  Arch’s reaction is highly positive. “I'm beside myself to be honest, but I think that is reasonable to feel that way being that I will be in the very public eye after decades of not performing songs that were difficult in my hay day.  Having said that I'm trying to stay focused and rehearse as much as I can.” And of course their setlist will include classic Fates Warning numbers. Arch states that there are possibilities that the Arch/Matheos band may play live again and additionally the door is not necessarily shut on a sequel to ‘Sympathetic Resonance’.  Given the amount of support they have secured with their debut, a sophomore effort appears to be universally desired by the prog metal community.

Back from Hell - Helstar's Heavy New Legacy

Originally written for Soundshock.com

Texan classic thrash metallers Helstar disbanded in the mid-nineties like countless other thrash acts but, like a phoenix, rose again in 2007. The following year, the band released their recorded comeback ‘King of Hell’, a surprisingly vicious update on the classic Helstar sound. Two years later, the quintet struck back with ‘Glory of Chaos’. Larry Barragan discusses the reactions Helstar have secured and what their future plans are at their first UK show.

‘Glory of Chaos’ is a behemoth of a record, with Halford-esque shrieks, thick modern metal riffage, and bloodthirsty drumming, quite a far cry from Helstar’s classic ‘Remnants of War’ or ‘Nosferatu’ releases. Did this polarise the fanbase? “The first reaction was like ‘Wow what the hell is that?’” Larry recalls animatedly. “And now everybody just…they love it. They’re like “That’s the heaviest album you guys have made.” It’s been pretty good. I haven’t had any real negative reactions from the fans. We used a lot of James’ [Rivera, vocalist] voice on this one. A lot of people didn’t realise he could do a lot of that stuff.”

The ultra-heavy sound the band has adopted works and is a feature signature to metal that Helstar were known for before their reunion. “I always wanted to make ‘Glory of Chaos’ since…forever. I’ve always wanted to be heavy. Different members of the band pull us in all different directions. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. We’ve never had that album where you listen to it and you felt like you’ve been punched in the face and that’s what I wanted for this album.” Plenty of reactivated classic acts stick to what they mastered and became best at, perhaps slightly modernising their sound but certainly not directly drawing influences from newer bands. Larry takes pride in stating that Helstar are the opposite. “We’re all metal heads and we’ve never stopped listening to metal. There’s all these influences from newer bands like Lamb of God and Sacrifice. What we wrote, that’s the way it came out. If you go back and listen to all the albums, we’ve never done part two of anything. It’s hard to do. It’s hard to not repeat yourself.”

The new sound is also a fantastic way to introduce the new generation of metal fans to Helstar, with a fresh sound as opposed to an outdated, nostalgic one. “The fanbase has actually grown since we’ve reunited. Last night, we played old songs and everyone was absolutely cool with it and then we played ‘Alma Negra’ and the place went nuts. Every time we played one of the new songs, I could tell there was different energy all of a sudden.” In a world where bands are struggling to remain relevant or stand out in some manner, Helstar have accomplished what they need to do with new music.

With the surge in popularity with retro thrash and heavy metal bands emulating a sound that was commonplace in the eighties, it seems like Helstar are taking the intrepid route by introducing new sounds, rather than capitalising on their classic metal status and potentially catapulting themselves into the same sphere of attention as these newer acts. Larry believes there is a strong difference between retro acts and those who were actually there at the time. “I think they have the knowledge of it, I don’t know if they have the feel that these bands like Helstar and some of the other bands that have been around. Those guys – when they write an album, it has a certain vibe and feel and you can tell these guys are gonna be around for a while. When you listen to those [retro metal bands], it sounds polished and everything but maybe they don’t quite get it. You gotta have your own identity. That’s just my biased opinion I guess.”

One of the prominent attributes as to why Helstar’s new found heaviness is around can be attributed to new drummer Mikey Lewis. “On ‘Glory of Chaos’, we’ve got Mikey in the band as our drummer and he understood us more from a drum perspective than any one. I think the album sounds as heavy as it does because of him. He made a huge change in us. It’s subtle, I don’t think people realise when they listen to it – the drums are fucking heavy – they just think ‘Wow, it sounds so heavy, it’s so fast.’ Actually he plays guitar too. He wasn’t in the writing process but for the next one, for sure. He’s already said ‘I’ve got some parts. Let’s get together.’ Yeah, anything to make my job easier.”

After this tour, Helstar plan on heading home to work on a new release. “I’ve got parts here and there that I have on my laptop already but not anything concrete. I’m sure Rob has a bunch of parts as well. Like I said, Mikey has some guitar parts too so we’ll get together and start piecing everything together.” As ‘Glory of Chaos’ was composed through emails and recorded without the band rehearsing together, it could be that the follow up album will be more thought out with more intricacies as Larry believes it could be beneficial to write the album together. “I think everybody wants to get together a little bit more and take some more time over the stuff. I like the solos but I think if I had a little more time, I could have made the solos more elaborate. But overall, I’m happy.”

Why Kampfar Respect Women

Originally written for Soundshock.com

Since signing to Napalm Records for their 2006 release ‘Kvass’, Norway’s Kampfar have received a significant deal of attention worldwide. In the last two years, the black metallers have managed to play prestigious metal festivals such as Wacken and Hellfest and soon they will embark on their debut North American outing. But despite the peaks they have accumulated, frontman Dolk considers these past two years the most strenuous and draining of Kampfar’s career since their inception in 1994.

“When a band gets more interest, in a way, you have to make new decisions every single day and it starts to become more like a job. It feels at least sometimes that it’s not good to be in a band any more.” It has been two years since

 Kampfar’s last comprehensive tour and Dolk is more than enthused to return to the road, delivering a stellar show to those in attendance. “I’m really happy to be playing again and I haven’t felt like that for the last two years. “ Drummer Ask submits the footnote: “We finally get the reward of the stress and the chaos.” This year marks the release of the Norwegians’ fifth album ‘Mare’, a mature release adding a bevy of variety to the black metallers’ catalogue. Naturally, Dolk is proud of the album but is more astounded by the attention the release has earned: “We sold as many albums of ‘Mare’ in the first five days as we did with our last album for two years. So it was like “Wow!”” Perhaps this impressive result can be partially attributed to Kampfar working with legendary metal producer Peter Tägtgren for the first time. “It was a natural choice. For me at least, it was very very important that he wanted to do this because we didn’t want to go into a studio because it’s a famous studio or it’s a famous guy doing the sounds. We wanted to take a new direction, of course, to create art. We needed someone who wanted to push the boundaries and limits to get with us. It was really important for me that he really wanted to do this album, not just “Yeah, I’ll do it,” but with passion. The last time I talked to Peter before we really decided to go that way, I asked him “Are you really up for this?” and he said “Fuck yeah!” The only thing we can say is in some ways it’s bad that we didn’t do this earlier.”

Ask highlights how important it was to have a producer who knew precisely what the band needed for their record and this kind of producer would have to be well-versed in all kinds of music as opposed to exclusively black metal. “We’ve always been a bit stubborn about keeping it a little on the low-fi. We’ve always taken thing away and this time we said “Fuck it, we’ll do everything. We’ll see what happens because if it doesn’t work you can always remove things.” So we choose to work with a producer who could do bigger productions and it’s very interesting how focused he is because we played Hellfest last year and he played there with Hypocrisy and the studio had been booked well in advance. We were watching Fear Factory play from the side of the stage because we both love the drummer and I’m talking to him and he’s well drunk. I’m explaining exactly what kind of sound I want for the studio and he remembered everything and had everything set up for that sound and he completely nailed it, exactly what I wanted. He thinks with a band. He doesn’t go in there and say “OK I’m going to give you my sound.” He says “I’m going to give you the sound that is best for you.”” Naturally, Kampfar will not consider anyone else when producing their next album.

‘Mare’ is something out of the ordinary for Kampfar and indeed black metal as a whole. The album is dedicated to all those women brave enough to subscribe to their own lifestyles and follow their own paths in life. This idea was inspired by the fate of women who were misunderstood by priests hundreds of years ago in Norway and were branded a witch and burnt. Ask sheds light on Kampfar’s only profound religious remark: “The thing is that to be a woman today and do what you want to do then maybe it’s a little harder than men but two hundred years ago, it was a lot worse. If you were a woman two hundred years ago and you said “No, I want to do my thing. I want to learn about what I want to learn,” [they set you on fire]. That’s our religious statement.”

Kampfar’s fortunes have not come without misfortunate. Late last year, founding member Thomas decided to part ways with the band on good terms. Thomas’ guitar work is instantly recogniseable and signature to Kampfar, carving a unique identity for the band. “The reason his guitar playing is quite different to other guitars is because he’s actually playing piano on a guitar. He thinks in piano. There were never two guitarists so he always played two melodies at once, basically, two harmonies at once. He plays deceptively simple. He’s actually an incredibly skilled musician,” Ask notes. Dolk is highly optimistic about Kampfar’s future with one of the founding members now absent from the line up: “We’re gonna nail it, without Thomas or not. We’re still brothers. When I go back to Norway, we’re having a barbecue party and he’s invited. We’re really connected but we just had to stop work with this kind of music together. We ended the line there, really.”

With the unhinged success of ‘Mare’, Kampfar’s position as co-headliners on tour with black metal stalwarts Secrets of the Moon and Vreid and a

highly anticipated North American tour, the band’s limits are not yet capped and they will continue to harvest a multitude of success that most black metal bands will never achieve. Kampfar demonstrate that persistence and artistic endeavour is the key to their outstanding results.

The End for Bal-Sagoth?

Originally written for Soundshock.com

Recently, black metal in the UK has truly developed a consistent scene with bands like Fen, A Forest of Stars and Wodensthrone acting as the vanguards of a new movement. However, before these bands, one of the most uttered names both at home and internationally in the UKBM scene was Bal-Sagoth. In the past few years, the fantasists have kept a low profile but why? Mainman Byron Roberts explains why he considers the band to be in semi-retirement.

  

In 2006, Bal-Sagoth released their last studio effort, entitled ‘The Chthonic Chronicles’ on one of the biggest metal labels Nuclear Blast. The album was very well-received by the metal community and an international showcase of UK black metal.  “We haven't been writing any new material, because we have yet to decide whether to carry on for further albums. I think eventually you will see the other members of the band branching out into various other projects, as realistically Bal-Sagoth won't last forever. I suppose you could say that Bal-Sagoth is in a state of semi-retirement, which wouldn't actually be too far from the truth! So essentially, the band has just been playing a handful of shows per year since our last album "The Chthonic Chronicles" came out in 2006,” Roberts notes. “Over the last five years, we've played in countries such as Finland, Norway, the USA, Portugal, the Czech Republic, etc. It hasn't been a deliberate decision to avoid playing the UK, it's just that no suitable offers had really come in until recently.” 

Given the bombastic and grand sound Bal-Sagoth exude on record, it can be incredibly difficult to replicate the music live. Opinions on Bal-Sagoth shows vary widely, dependent on the quality of the sound and the knowledge of the sound engineers at the time. “It's impossible to accurately recreate the multi-layered sound of the albums in the live environment. We just have to settle for getting it as close as is humanly possible within the overall confines of the live show. That's partially why I've never been satisfied with our gigs over the years. I personally don't think there's any need to play this stuff live. Every time we play a show it perhaps erodes a little bit of the magic this band has. I would hope that the energy of the live experience might go some way to make up for it, but there's only so much you can do. Quite honestly, our material is not designed or written to be performed accurately live. Bal-Sagoth has always been more about the album experience; sitting back with the stereo on, booklet in hand, with the listener getting lost within the sonic universe of our discography.”

Unlike many metal acts, Roberts admits that Bal-Sagoth’s strength is not in the live show. The prominence of the lyrics in the band substitute for this though; each album is a conceptual piece, concerning itself with fantasy and sci-fi worlds conceived by Roberts himself. “The whole concept for the band was essentially built around the lyrical content. I had many of the lyrics written and the albums planned our years before I even met the people who would eventually end up being in the band. I came up with the band concept around 1989, but back then, seemingly no one was interested in being part of a high concept metal band with fantasy and sci-fi lyrics. That was the height of the whole socio-political thrash and death metal band surge, and it just wasn't "cool" to want to start a band dealing with mythological and fantasy topics. It was a real problem finding people willing to give the idea a chance. Eventually a guy I knew called Mac introduced me to some people he had been jamming covers within their bedroom. They were looking to start a serious band too, and to cut a long story short, Jonny and Chris ultimately agreed to be part of the Bal-Sagoth project. Only then did the music start being composed.”

With such dedication to the lyrics that are written over a period of years, it seems unusual that Roberts expresses these stories through music as opposed to a medium that would allow him to limitlessly narrate, such as a novel. “The reason I wanted to tell these stories via music was because of my love of black and death metal, and fantasy & sci-fi literature. Fusing those two loves seemed like a good idea at the time. The whole idea was that the band would be an extreme and symphonic musical project which would be underpinned by this elaborate lyrical universe. Originally, it was also driven by a desire to create the kind of music and lyrics that I myself would like to hear and read as a fan, because there wasn't much of that kind of stuff around back then. Pretty much everyone opposed the idea at some point, even people in the band itself, believe it or not! But eighteen years and six albums later, here we are.” Persistence is obviously the key for Byron. He states: “The other members aren't really reading enthusiasts, to be honest, and they certainly aren't big readers of fantasy, sci-fi or mythological books. I'm sure they eventually read the album booklets once they get copies of the CDs, but they generally don't take any great interest in the lyrical side of the band, and never have. And that's fine with me, because the lyrical side is exclusively my domain anyway.”

With a power-struggle between the music and the lyrics, it is worth considering how the songs are written and which aforementioned aspect is the priority. “When we write albums, I'll give the composers an outline of the kind of stuff I need for each song. Sometimes it will be a very broad outline, merely mentioning the overall mood required for a piece. Other times, for the "flagship" songs, it will be a much more detailed outline listing the events of the story and so forth. A lot of the time Jonny just comes up with something unconnected to an outline and just submits it to me, and I then decide which lyrics are best suited to that particular composition. More often than not, the actual final lyrics are kept a secret from all the other members of the band until the mixing process is underway! So, ultimately, our way of writing songs is a mixture of collaboration and isolation, and that's the Bal-Sagoth method.” A method that is unlikely to change if Bal-Sagoth decide to continue with new material but for now, it’s all up in the air and all dedicated fanatics should catch the live shows because nothing is set in stone for these symphonic black metallers.

...of 2010

I think this year's edition will be even less interesting than last year's predominantly because I rekindled a love of '80s hard rock, which completely dominated my listening habits (and is certainly to blame for a drought of posts here). There were countless albums I wanted to investigate but never found the time or desire to, more so than usual.

Best Album
Pain of Salvation ~ Road Salt One

Pain of Salvation win by default, really. This album is more conventional than previous full-length Scarsick but in a rock-orientated way, rather than a metal one. The focus is on emotion, with influences from throughout rock's history creating yet another creative album that evoked plentiful spins before it finally hit me. That and I wasn't really in much of a progressive mood at all this year.

Honourable mentions: Alcest ~ Écailles de lune; Atheist ~ Jupiter

Best EP
Murder Construct ~ Murder Construct

With members from Cattle Decapitation, Exhumed and Impaled, Murder Construct could be considered something of a super group. This EP may not actually be as amazing as I thought but I hadn't listened to grind in a while until I heard this and it punched my teeth in. Death metal-articulated grind passages positioned next to straight-forward death metal moments with that dark atmosphere Cattle Decapitation enjoy using nowadays. Has a few quirky moments. Repeated listens aplenty. I'm not sure I actually heard any other EPs this year, come to think of it...

Best Song

Pain of Salvation ~ 'Sisters'

If another band churned out a song like this (someone like Nightwish), it might ruin the nature of sounding too sickly-sweet. Pain of Salvation go there though and make it sound completely genuine and non-cliché, possibly due to Daniel's vocals. The fragility of this song and the colourful climax at the end mark it particularly from the remainder of the album. A very beautiful number.

Honourable mentions: Alcest ~ 'Solar Soul'; Pain of Salvation ~ 'Curiosity'


Biggest Disappointment
James LaBrie ~ Static Impulse

Oh dear. Oh dear. From the mind of Mullmuzzler, the voice of Dream Theater hands us his interpretation of melodic death metal. Really. Compared to the grand Elements of Persuasion, this song features simpler instrumentation (in the melodic death metal vessel) and is entirely one-dimensional throughout. LaBrie's vocals are juxtaposed with Peter Wildoer, who I believe is from shitty Swedish melo death/thrash act Darkane, and his unbearable screams. It's an odd mix and they certainly do not compliment each other. LaBrie additionally tries to inject heaviness into his own vocals to measure up to the heavy riffs but the result isn't very convincing. Perhaps LaBrie should revive Winter Rose; the glam metal revival is fruitful in Sweden at the moment.

(Dis)Honourable mentions: Sabaton ~ Coat of Arms; Forbidden ~ Omega Wave


Best Cover Art
Death Angel ~ Relentless Retribution

Sadly, I never got round to listening to the new Death Angel album but when they announced this as the album art, I was ecstatic and knew most bands would struggle to produce such an arresting image for their release this year. This realisation of the saying 'wolf in sheep's clothing' is so beautifully violet and evocative of Hell that it fits the name of a band dubbed Death Angel perfectly. I'm assuming it's painted, which recalls the classic metal album art of the '80s ~ truly epic scenarios captured with oils on canvas. However, it does look like the most prominent wolf has been based off Courage Wolf. Oh, the Internet.

Honourable mentions: Alcest ~ Écailles de lune; Atheist ~ Jupiter


Best Newcomer
Triptykon ~ Esparistera Daimones

Okay, so they may not be brand new but Tom G. Warrior's Triptykon definitely aren't Celtic Frost, as the photo proves. This full-length is dark and heavy doom metal and essentially a natural continuation from Celtic Frost's 2006 Monotheist. With a great diversity of track lengths, this debut full-length chronicles a journey through anguish. Warrior is clearly enjoying his freedom here.

Honourable mention: Murder Construct

Best Live Show
Transatlantic, Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, 21th May

Prog rock supergroup Transatlantic decided to immortalise their European tour by taping their London concert for a future DVD release. Despite having to endure the mutton-dressed-as-lamb Mike Portnoy crowd-surfing, I was fortunate enough to enjoy hearing all of The Whirlwind in its entirety, executed with excellent attention to detail. The band were down-to-earth and were fully behind the live show, particularly Neal Morse who had tears in his eyes during some of the performance. As a bonus, Pain of Salvation's Daniel Gildenlow was a session member. It did feel as if the audience were there for individual members as opposed to Transatlantic and they could have been more visually enthusiastic, otherwise I'm sure all will agree the show was superlative.

Honourable mentions: Fozzy, The Garage, London, 15th May; Therion, Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, 31st October


Best Festival
Hellfest Open Air 2010, Clisson, 18th - 20th June

Last year, I said I'd probably be listing Hellfest as festival for the year yet again and I was right. This year was particularly exciting for me, seeing Freak Kitchen for the first time ever and enjoying a few of my other favourite bands like Kampfar, Urgehal and Sabaton. UDO, Raven and General Surgery are rare sights in London and it was fantastic seeing Twisted Sister, KISS and Alice Cooper without the hefty price tag that comes with seeing them in horrendously huge venues. Oh, and Bloodbath, Nile, Tankard and Asphyx all deserve mention. Ah, there were so many bands. This year's line up is only looking so-so. Having been for the past four years, I might skip Hellfest this year. I'm not sure I could drag anyone along to it either.

Honourable mentions: Hard Rock Hell III, Prestatyn, 2th - 4th December; High Voltage, London, 24th - 25th July

Best Discovery

Dangerous Toys

Nope. No metal here. Dangerous Toys are the Forced Entry of the '80s hard rock scene. That is, criminally underrated, probably because they too arrived on the scene too late. Fusing hard rock with Southern rock (they are from Texas), they managed to crank out their addictive and infectious self-titled effort, which is flawless. The vocals of Jason McMaster are screeched admirably and the guitars are either creatively melodic or heavy in a Southern cowboy style unique to this quintet. The second album is less in-your-face with some adventuring into different song structures but the final two tracks are such effortless one-two punches. When the third album was released, it saw the band desperately trying to adapt to the nineties scene and the release, interestingly entitled Pissed, is more aggressive musically and lyrically with no sign of cowboy-ness. I haven't heard the fourth album and I don't want to any time soon because after that, there will be no unheard Dangerous Toys releases out there for me. Isn't it sad? The band still play the rare show but from what I can glean, they never leave Texas. If only they would come to Hard Rock Hell...

Honourable mentions: Enuff Z'nuff, Pretty Boy Floyd

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Perhaps next year, I'll get into metal again. I did check out some old school death metal, actually, but maybe this year will be my reintroduction to modern metal. If I can stop listening to the '80s hard rock, the NWoBHM and the old school death metal. And the non-metal stuff I also indulge in now. I have no idea what metal releases are coming out this year. Dream Theater, I assume and...? I'm useless.