Album Review: Femali “Psycho Logical”

Some of my long time secret fans will remember how I reviewed Femali many years ago. This solo act was still pretty wet behind the ears when I met him. Incidentally we ran into each other at the Skeletonwitch concert I reviewed where he informed me of his latest album. A few Instagram clicks later and he sent me a link to “Psycho Logical”, his latest album.

How has he changed over time? If I’m honest not much has changed at all. Femali still maintains a heavy use of the unconventional, but unlike the previous review I can discern a few more things.

Listening to his recordings I can discern that some things are purposeful. The moments where he sings off key are an artistic choice, which was something I couldn’t’ discern back then and demonstrates with a contrast of clear, on pitch falsettos (“Don’t Wanna Remember” “Sorrow Saturation”). Where I found this more purposeful in this album I’m wondering if it enhanced the work. On one hand the atonality portends the subject matter, such as the speaker in one song appearing to comfort a girl for the speaker’s own questionable intentions (“Sorrow Saturation”). At other times it seems adding those elements took away from the overall expression of the piece (“Vent”) and only existed to be different.

Compared to my previous experience with his work, though, I found that it wasn’t always as complex as the previous time I heard Femali’s music. It seems to have a purpose, though, especially given how pedestrian the songs at the start of the album (“Leniency”, “Grand Canyons”) appear to be when compared to to the end (“Vent”). The pedestrian elements of common meter and arrangements give way to more rhythmic texture and styles, but I’m not sure how well this works out, especially with the constant themes of relationship woes and the pile up to a cacophonous moment. Instead of the interplay that could happen, given the topics in the album of relationship woes tied to psychological issues, the different modalities aren’t cohesively blended with the different styles (“Grand Canyons”, “Sorrow Saturation”, “Vent”). It’s a shame it doesn’t cohesively blend because Femali has some unique transitions and moments in songs where the changes are simple yet induce a profound effect on the song.

Despite nearly six years passing the quirkiness of Femali remains, though it is more avant garde and experimental than I previously noted. Despite the lack of complexity the attempts to add juxtaposing things like jazz with other elements like djent or gritty vocal stylings with an acoustic solo (“Leniency”, “Grand Canyons”, “Don’t Wanna Remember”) need something else to make everything cohesive. Most of the time a pronounced rather than quirky transition would solve the issue. That wasn’t the only problems with efficacy.

I found myself listening to the album and questioning the efficacy of some aspects throughout. It is clear from the name of the album there are themes of psychological turmoil and breakdown into a cacophonous and disorderly mess (“Grand Canyons”, “Sorrow Saturation”, “Vent”) which Femali captures quite well. Sadly, the lyrics don’t effectively capture these aspects all the time. If it isn’t clunky with end rhyming the lyrics lack artistry and forethought to the subject matter (“Don’t Wanna Remember”, “Fell in Love with a Face”, “Vent”) so what should be poignant – as in the case with “Sorrow Saturations” – ends up lackadaisical and unrealized.

I still stand firm that Femali is a talented person who possesses artistic vision. I feel, however, it’s not the vision or the talent lacking in the album but the execution.

3/4

Femali can be found on facebook, Instagram, and bandcamp.

Album Review: Poets of the Fall “Ultraviolet”

Some of my secret fans know that a while back I posted asking for suggestions of what to review (I believe if one goes to highlights readers can still fill in the suggestion box). I got the suggestion to review Poets of the Fall’s album “Ultraviolet”. Admittedly I hadn’t heard of the band (the shame!) and looked for the album. I could only find it on Spotify and it seems it was only available on that and iTunes (and no one has that anymore). I go into this with research and no other comparisons.

Even though I go into this review with an open mind, I think I am not the intended audience for this album. I’m pretty sure I aged out of their target audience. The lyrical content comes off as angsty (“Dancing on Broken Glass”, “False Kings”), often singing about missing someone beloved to the speaker (“Fool’s Paradise”, “Moments Before the Storm”) or how the speaker will “make it” despite loss or sacrifice(“Dancing on Broken Glass”, “In a Perfect World”). While love and achievements with sacrifice are common topics the way these topics are presented have more of a “I’ll show you” or “I can’t be with you, woe is me” tone which, for younger audiences, is an expected way to approach such topics.

It isn’t simply how topics are handled, though. The music is basic in terms of arrangement. For one it’s chocked full of end rhyming (“My Dark Disquiet”, “Fool’s Paradise”). This left the language rather simplistic and limits the emotional range of the topics at times (“Angel”).

Aside from lyrical content the music is somewhat odd. Most of the time the album appears heavily influenced by jazz and soft rock ( “Dancing on Broken Glass”, “The Sweet Escape”, “Moments Before the Storm”, “In a Perfect World”) when they categorize themselves as a bit darker and more symphonic metal. Those elements did exist in some songs but based on what’s here and other albums this doesn’t feel like that is consistent with their sound. At times it felt the symphonic elements were “tacked on” and out of place with the song (“My Dark Despair”, “False Kings”, “Standstill”) and there for some artistic cred.

But, as I’ve said, my hair may be too gray and I may have too much arthritis for Poets of the Fall’s demographic. This doesn’t make their music less enjoyable for groups who need that outlet for their angst and a need for glamourization of dreams realized. It means that their music isn’t for everyone.

2.8/4

Album Review: EMPATH by Devin Townsend

If I haven’t stressed this enough I do consider myself a fan of Devin Townsend’s works. It is a bias to consider when reading this review. Admittedly I ordered the album in hopes of comparing the record to the digital album, only to find the vinyl album won’t be sent until sometime in May. Lesson learned…

I still managed to listen to it on Spotify and what I said about the album on Twitter still stands: those who are long time fans have nothing to fear with this album. While ambitious and full of high stakes it delivers the same overwhelming power and intensity associated with Devin Townsend.

Some fans may notice some familiar trademarks in Townsend’s songs reminiscent of albums like TERRIA or INFINITY. Songs like “Castaway” , “Spirits Will Collide”, and “Singularity” offer some familiar ground for longtime fans. While all the songs contain sounds from nature, these songs in particular blend nature sounds with powerful drums and guitars. When backed by the orchestral music it adds the perfect nuance for these songs as well as songs like “Requiem”. Unfortunately this is where I also find lots of criticism.

It is very clear what type of message Townsend wanted to convey, but at times certain elements are too much or don’t add the desired effect. There are times the “soft” parts aren’t well executed. Instead of a soft tone to serve as a narration (or, dare I say, chorus?) we get something which sounds canned and, in the case of the choir, hard to understand at times. This is definitely the case of “Why?” and could have been solved by instructing the choir to have better diction (I watched the live stream of the choir’s recording. They lacked diction). That wasn’t the only thing problematic about the album.

While all of this came together for a rich, textured, world building experience it felt like it wasn’t fully developed. The theme of telling a story is brought up as often as the phrase “I am” throughout the album, but there is little follow through. The song “Sprite” is a great example. I suppose one could argue in the case of “Genesis” the story is ongoing, but basic storytelling implies the reader only get a portion of the ongoing story anyway. The end of the story is just a stopping point to an otherwise ongoing story. The best way to fix some of this is to have one story per song with each character mentioned a main character to the plot. At the risk of being stoned to death there are a plethora of albums that pull off the same thing with a stronger effect. A couple of albums that exemply this are JOE’S GARAGE by Frank Zappa and THE WALL by Pink Floyd. For something that doesn’t fully give a proper ending and plays with conflict and world building TOMMY by The Who serves a great example. Even AMERICAN IDIOT by Green Day, for better or for worse, manages to tell a story with several subplots and characters with similar elements to EMPATH.

Then again TOMMY was panned by some critics when it was released. Some critics felt JOE’S GARAGE fell short for the same reasons EMPATH does in my opinion. Despite my views as a critic Townsend still delivers a world full of love, hope, as well as looking darkness and overwhelming intensity. Each song still leads the listener into a feeling, a state, that overlooks all the pitfalls that come with this album.

3.6/4

Elantris Review: “This Sacrifice”

Well folks, I’m back in the saddle again and I’m finally reviewing again. What better way to ease back into things than an album review? This review already starts off interesting, or at least interesting to me.

Elantris, formerly Blackthorn, is a symphonic metal band out of Ohio that formed in 2014. One of their noteworthy points is how they recently toured with Lacuna Coil. The band’s new name is possibly taken from a novel of the same name, but that’s speculation on my part. What I can confirm is “This Sacrifice” is their debut album released sometime recently. I can’t seem to find anything else about them. I actually came across them in a Facebook group and they were looking for reviews to post. Naturally I’m drawn to bands with bits of mystery and thought I’d bite.

Here’s something that was interesting for me about buying this album. I searched for this album to purchase on iTunes (yes, I know you’re judging, and it’s OK. I am disappointed in myself too) and review only to find it wasn’t under their current name. It was still listed under their old name. If I recall you can find it under Elantris on Spotify and other platforms. Despite a minor incident, though, I finally got the album and gave it a listen.

The album kicks off with “Ellie”, and it barrages the listener with rhapsody of heavy tones tempered with a smooth synthesizer. One thing I really appreciated about the intro is how is gradually changes into a more complex time signature and gradually brings the listener into a battle march. I’ve come to expect many things to happen in symphonic metal, which includes complex meter, lots of bravado, but I didn’t expect other things from this song. The female vocalist was one of them. I’ll admit I’m pretty sheltered when it comes to symphonic metal but I’d grown accustomed to hearing vocalists with operatic or at least classical vocal training. The female vocalist has more of a pop star style. It is certainly different and while it jarred me at first I see how the style pairs well with the lyrics. The lyrical content was another aspect I didn’t expect. It felt like lots of angst came out with lines like “you don’t know me, you don’t know anything about me”, but again I see how it all comes together to something that foreshadows how the dark tones of the song are completely alluding to a dark nature. This dissonance carries throughout the album and adds elements that invoke doubt about the genuine nature of what’s presented without fully jeopardizing the composition of the songs.

Next up is “Ascension”, and it’s interesting to me in how it creates dissonance that’s ultimately cacophonous. It opens up with some black and heavy metal aesthetics of blast beats (though sometimes it slightly throws off the tempo), extreme vocals, and some shredding, but at times it seems to hearken back to the symphonic metal elements. At times it’s problematic as clearly the symphonic elements feel a little carelessly thrown in, though it’s clearly meant to bring a calming element to the song and allude to the lyrics about moving past terrible things. One moment where it’s problematic is when the transition from black metal to symphonic –or vice versa –prove slightly awkward as the blast beats either are a hare off or they drown out the vocals. When the same rhythm is transferred to other instruments it makes the other chord progressions awkward and feel thrown in to display skill rather than add to the song itself. Regardless of the problems I feel anyone can appreciate the powerful build ups and the earthy, aggressive tones of the instruments that pair with an airy, dolce voice. It’s as if the idea of whether the speaker can rise above the past is brought into question due to the speaker’s integrity.

Speaking of integrity I felt some parts of “Denied” may have lacked some of that. Each particular movement provides something powerful and provocative, but when placed together lacks anything cohesive to tie it together. One movement will have a powerful breakdowns paired with raw vocals and blastbeats, but other times it tries to take a legato turn with bittersweet tones. Sometimes there’s an attempt to transition between these movements with blast beats or with the synthesizer or arpeggios, but it ends up feeling out of place. I definitely see these things matching the lyrics where they sing about being broken or living moment to moment, but instead of fully conveying these ideas it feels like an awkward juxtaposition of things that were awesome that should make a song with no real agreement how to bring it together.

This disjointed composition seems to continue with other songs. Throughout “Forgotten” there are lots of things that, while cool, don’t cohesively mesh. I feel the lyrics, while superficially dark (and given the theme of things forgotten fitting) demonstrate why I personally don’t like end rhyming. Most people tend to place the end rhyming at the end of a line, and paired with the tendency for native English speakers to speak in an iambic rhythm, end up often with rhythm structure of “ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum-ba-dum baaaaah”. I personally feel that particular rhythm is generic and a go-to when writing on the fly. It doesn’t add anything to the song other than leave me grasping at straws to justify the composition. I feel, however, there is a lot of potential with this song as I do notice an attempt to tie things together. The spoken part meant to bridge back into the vocals, while falling into the trappings of end rhyming, allude the most lyrically to the feelings conveyed about forgetfulness and being forgotten. The synthesizer seems to be arbitrarily thrown in, but that’s because while there is a theme and variation with the rhythm it’s marred by the lyrics and the barrage of blastbeats. Everything feels like it’s built around them, though I’m guessing it was intentional as the things pointed out are overdone and make a song forgettable.

Following such a cliché song is a more redeeming song:”Project 000”. The composition is more complex and more cohesive and more to what I’m accustomed with symphonic metal. Overall this is a song that provides the listener with more of everything. There is a more fluid transition between the blastbeats and breakdowns in the song and the chord progressions not only compliment these moments fantastically but really emphasize the mood of the song. The harmonies even help convey some sort of humanoid creature in more blended vocals than previous tracks. The synthesizer is more purposeful with its contribution to the song. While the lyrics are still lacking it feels like turning this into a disjointed duet emphasizes the internal conflict of promises from an unknown versus the promise granted, more so than other tracks. This is a song that, if I had to pick a song for radio play, would top the list.

If “Project 000” was a promise of a more complex turn in the album it wasn’t a good one when followed by “Odium”. That’s not to say that it’s a bad song, but it starts off deviating slightly from their other songs and eventually succumbing to their formula. As with the previous song, it starts of with a slow tempo, but doesn’t jump in with blast beats. However it does go into the usual pattern of having screaming vocals paired with faster rhythms and the clean vocals paired with more legato themes. It also fell back into lyrically bludgeoning the listener with end rhymes, albeit it didn’t always fall into iambic rhythm. The clean vocalist wasn’t hitting the hitting all the notes when she needed to jump up in pitch, and I suspect has to do with the fact much of the time it was lyrically when it needed a strong emphasis on the consonants at the start of the word. This is a common issue with singing, which is why many pieces tend to compose pieces where lyrically the high pitches coincide with an emphasis on vowel sounds. It provides an easier jump between high and low pitches because it’s easier to do with sounds that are more “open” and have less to push through.

The next song completely deviates from the rest of their album, let along symphonic metal, by invoking sea tunes and djent in “Seas of Torment” in the first few minutes. It does goes back into their trademark blastbeats and screams followed by melodic, clean vocals, leaving their venture into pirate metal short lived. I understand why they’d invoke those elements with a title like that but as I said with other songs it didn’t seem cohesive, even with their album. I feel like everything else with this song I’ve covered in other songs so I’ll move on…

The next few songs I feel actually go together in some fashion so I’ll deal with “Strings of Silk”, “Dawn”, and “Captivate” together. “Strings of Silk” seems to be the expected fanfare from the album with the violin setting on the synthesizer until I heard “Dawn”. The first song sets a theme that is carried into the second. The dolce voice paired with the piano really lets not only the vocalist, but the band shine. We see lyrics and composition noted of symphonic metal but also the strengths of the band as a whole. This, in turn, segues into “Captivate”. It opens up to deliver all the punches in the form of blastbeats, screaming vocals, driving tempos, and clean vocals that only warn of more to come. The lyrics talk about leaving this as a standard at one point, and I couldn’t agree more. This is the climax and standard for the album.

The album finishes with the eponymous title “This Sacrifice”. It delivers the grittiness that we saw in previous songs paired with oftentimes ballad-eque movements and a fitting conclusion lyrically and musically to the album. Rather than being disjointed and sacrificing cohesive composition it seems this was thoughtfully pieced together, knowing full well this was to end the album. The ending brings everything together in an epic piece fit of the genre and leaves me hoping that Elantris continues in this direction for other albums.

Overall Elantris promises symphonic metal but delivers something out of the norm for the genre, be it breaking from traditional vocalists or surprising elements from other genres. The big problem this serves, however, is the tendency to lean towards what sounds cool rather than bringing everything together to make the song contribute something new to the genre. Instead of sounding like symphonic metal with other elements at times it sounds like people from several metal backgrounds coming together to try out symphonic metal and creating a hodge podge of a song. Once the band does commit to being a symphonic metal band, though, the results are amazing.

3.0/4

Check Out This Artist: Watermint

In order to revive my woefully neglected blog (there’s an explanation forthcoming) I thought I’d shine a very dim buglight, er, spotlight on some artists.  I’m not sure how often this will happen, but it gives everyone a chance to have fun.

The first one I ran across in a chatroom who goes by Watermint.  She mostly gravitates to symphonic, horror, and, various songs inspired by soundtracks (the biggest one, she cites, as video games).  However she showed me her dubstep mix that seems to deviate from her typical genres.

Despite the deviation from her genre the rest of her mixes share one thing in common with the feature song: the light, airy feel of the songs with dark , melancholic undertones.  It creates a sense of nostaligia on one moment and darker feelings in another.  The dissonance that meshes well for this artist.

She has a lot to work with and knows how to keep it balanced.  Here are two of my favorite mixes.  I encourage you to check out more.