Archive for the ‘2011’ Category
Pentagram – Last Rites
The new Pentagram came out today! I had pre-ordered it a few days ago and right when I got up this morning, I fired up my PC and let the download start. All total today I’ve got 4 listens into it including letting it play while I am writing this and feel that it’s enough to give it a proper review.
I’ve got to say that I didn’t really care for any of the Pentagram stuff after Victor Griffin’s departure from the band in 1994 (no offense to Joe Hasselvander), it just was missing something special…and obviously it was VG’s guitar playing. He’s got a great style that is just right for Bobby’s vocal stylings.
I had heard 2 songs from the album already and had already acquainted myself with them pretty well in the last week or 2; those songs being Call The Man and 8. Both tracks have a great feel to them and sort of show a “mature” sound to the band. This album seems to be a little more melodic than albums past. Bobby’s voice sounds great…nice and strong. Clean living has certainly given his voice some power again. The song Into The Ground has some good vocal harmonies that I assume are Bobby’s. Having downloaded the album, I have no liner notes to check. That’s one drawback of going all digital these days. Victor’s signature sound is all over this album. His solos are great as expected.
The songs 8 and Windmills and Chimes really show a new side to their music that I hadn’t heard before. They are a little more progressive and not so typical stoner/doom like they get classified as. Windmills and Chimes (remake) is really quite a beautiful song and one of my favorites on the album for sure. The song American Dream sounds similar to 8 when it starts but quickly goes in a different direction. Walk In Blue Light (remake from First Daze Here) and Nothing Left really sound like they could have been used on Relentless or Day of Reckoning. Great classic sounding Pentagram! I have to admit that the only song that hasn’t grabbed me yet is Death In 1st Person. It’s not a bad song at all, but just doesn’t hook me in like the rest of the album.
The only negative thing I can say about the album is in the production. It’s a wee tad muddy and Bobby seems a little too low in the mix…but that’s just my opinion. Otherwise I think it’s an awesome return to form by the band.
In general, it sounds like Bobby and Victor had fun making this record. It’s got really good energy and positive vibes to it and I can undoubtedly say that if you have ever even remotely liked this band, you’ll like this album.
8.5/10 if I was forced to put a number on it.
*UPDATE* – I didn’t realize until yesterday (4/13/11) that most of the tracks on here are remakes. While I am a little disappointed, the album still deserves the rating I gave it. BUY IT! Don’t download illegally.
Track Listing:
1. Treat Me Right
2. Call The Man
3. Into The Ground
4. 8
5. Everything’s Turning To Night
6. Windmills And Chimes
7. American Dream
8. Walk In Blue Light
9. Horseman
10. Death In 1st Person
11. Nothing Left
12. All Your Sins – Reprise
Yours truly and Bobby before their first of 2 shows at SxSW 2011.
Sade Covers Thin Lizzy (The Not So Metal Files!)
I have loved Sade since she hit the scene with her album Diamond Life in the USA in 1985 and have bought every album since. Smooth voice and her backing band is always top notch. My love for Thin Lizzy is no secret even though I’m a newer fan (97ish). As with people covering Iron Maiden, I am very picky about the Thin Lizzy covers that I hear. Today someone posted this Sade cover of Thin Lizzy’s classic Still In Love With You for her upcoming 2CD collection entitled The Ultimate Collection. Before even hearing it, I had already assumed that it would be quality and I was right. It’s a nice take on this classic love song.
Enjoy.
Concert Review – Al Di Meola 4/3/11
I’m the first to admit that I haven’t bought anything by Di Meola since his 1996 “…Plays Piazzolla” CD. For me, 1983’s “Scenario” was my last favorite of the “electric era” and all those before it were all great. Al is the man. He’s got it all: technique, feel, speed, originality. It wasn’t long after 1983 that he went more acoustic than electric style and really put out a lot of the world music stuff. It just wasn’t my thing. Sure it was Al playing some good stuff, but I loved that classic fusion analog stuff from the 70s and early 80s that he did.
I mentioned in another post about seeing Return To Forever a few years back and how great it was and also about missing a Di Meola show in Norfolk because he canceled the day of the show. Luckily he didn’t cancel tonight.
Tonight’s show at the One World Theatre proved once again that this is one of the greatest places to see a show. Great seating, great sound, intimate. I was fortunate to score 2 seats on the center aisle, 2nd row and we had no one sitting in front of us. Perfection. My guitarist, Doug Morrison, attended with me.
Al comes on at about 6:10PM, says hello to the crowd, cracks a joke or 2 (Is Willie still here?”) and they go right into their set, opening with a song called Fire On Babylon. He was on the acoustic for almost the entire set until they went into Midnight Tango and he strapped on his Paul Reed Smith and played electric for the end of the set and for the encore. He was great. Period. His band was awesome (standup electric bass, drums, rhythm acoustic guitar, drums, percussion, accordion) and filled with all non-Americans except for his percussionist. The real standout member was his accordion player, Fausto. I’m rather neutral on how I feel about that instrument in general, but this guy was quite incredible. The whole band was. Al put down the shred on both the acoustic and electric like only he can do it. He picks almost every note and his precision is incredible. It was quite exhilarating to be sitting 10 feet from a musician that I have respected for about 20+ years now.
Even being unfamiliar with most of the material from tonight’s show, it didn’t really matter. It was as I expected and more. I’m looking forward to his next tour already.
I grabbed a setlist from the stage and this is the what was listed as “1st Set”. There was another set to be performed at 8:30PM and I wonder if it was going to be any different.
- Fire on Babylon
- Brave New World
- Misterio
- Double Concerto
- Turquoise
- Oblivion
- Full Frontal Contrapuntal
- Capouiera
- Midnight Tango/One Night Last June
- Race With The Devil On A Spanish Highway (encore)
Odin! Odin! Odin! Odin! pt 2
I am a happy boy right now.
Odin is doing a rare show on August 27th, 2011 at the famed Whisky A Go-Go in Hollywood. 
I’ve been a fan since 1986 and wanted to catch their last reunion show but missed it. My concert ticket is bought and now I just need to book my flight and I’m set. This has been a long time coming.
If you like some great hard rock, I also recommend Shawn and Jeff Duncan’s band DC4. It’s killer rock and roll by a great bunch of dudes. You can read about my trip to LA to see DC4 from 2009 here.
Damn, I’m a happy boy right now.
Serpent Throne
White Summer*Black Winter
I like a lot of instrumental bands but I’ve always found it difficult to find quality instrumental rock bands that didn’t write their stuff to sound like they were writing around having a singer. Philadelphia’s Serpent Throne satisfies my instrumental craving perfectly.
I met the two guitarists, Demian Fenton and Don Argott, at the premier for the movie Last Days Here during the SxSW 2011 Film and Music Festival. You can read my review of their movie here. They are the guys behind the production/direction of the movie and in talking with Demian after the flick, he mentioned that he was in a band and I had forgotten about it until a few days after seeing the movie as I was wrapped up in a lot of SxSW activities.
Since then I have been spinning their stuff practically non-stop. Metal has a lot of sub-genres and these guys would typically be classified in the stoner rock and doom categories. To call them Black Sabbath worship is too easy. Pretty much all metal bands worship Sabbath whether they know it or not. Serpent Throne take it to a bit of a different level in my opinion. They use lots great dual guitar harmonies that are reminiscent of Thin Lizzy in places. I hear hints of Trouble (S/T LP era) in there as well, intended or not. There are some cool hints of 70s Scorpions as well as Uriah Heep and Wishbone Ash. Maybe some Cactus too. It’s a nice blend of great rock and metal without sounding like they are just ripping off all of the classic bands.
I think it’s pretty tough for an instrumental band of this genre to continue to write stuff and keep it interesting and Serpent Throne has done that
The Battle of Old Crow
with all 3 of their albums: Ride Satan Ride (2007), The Battle of Old Crow (2009) and White Summer*Black Winter (2010). I highly recommend picking up all of their stuff. Battle of Old Crow and White Summer*Black Winter are available for download from Amazon and iTunes. I had to buy the CD for Ride Satan Ride and convert it to MP3 myself as it’s not available for legal download.
Hopefully I’ll catch these guys live sometime, even if it means heading to Philly for it. Would be cool to have them hit Austin for a show sometime. I think they’d do well here, especially if they were in on a SxSW gig. So, nice work, guys! Hope all good things come out of Last Days Here as well.
The Metal Files 
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