Album Review: LONG DISTANCE CALLING How Do We Want To Live? (6/26)

Long Distance Calling or LDC is a post-rock band from Münster, Germany, formed in 2006 releasing their debut LP Satellite Bay the following year. The majority of their tracks are extended instrumentals. LDC are one of the most internationally successful instrumental rock bands from Germany. They have created unconventional and unique music that is progressive and versatile with just an occasional guest singer. I have mainly followed the band since they moved to InsideOut Music and released two good albums: TRIPS (2016) and Boundless (2018).

Now LDC's seventh studio album is entitled How Do We Want To Live?. The album contains ten new songs, which all contain classic LDC-Trademarks that create an atmosphere and a vibrant environment. The band dedicate a whole album to the subject of artificial intelligence. So it's no surprise that there's quite a few instances of electronic sounds. But interestingly, it still sounds organic and not robotic or forced. That characteristic is brought from the opening two-part track "Curiosity". Featuring a lot of voice samples and electronic music elements, part 1 reminds me of a mix of Vangelis' Blade Runner score mixed with Dream Theater's  "The Great Debate". Part 2 evolves to one of the recurrent themes of the album, 'a modern version of Pink Floyd', specially post-Waters era. That is obtained by the electronic elements, coupled with slide guitars generating this overall Floyd-ian vibe (think A Momentary Lapse of Reason). The 3rd single "Immunity" video includes footage shot by fans community during the Covid19 pandemic. And even if all songs were already done before the craziness we are living in, the album, and this song in particular, do reflect the mixed feelings of hope and optimism with angst and fear of today's world. It's a very powerful video.

The album also visits some of the traditions that were demonstrated on their first albums. That includes different tools and ideas, for example "Voices" goes from its electronic first half to melodic guitars arpeggios under choral-like female vocals. Or the strings used in "Fail / Opportunity". And in one track, “Beyond Your Limits”, vocals and lyrics were added. They are sung by Eric A. Pulverich of the band Kyles Tolone. It's a nice touch and reminded me of a Phil Collins song. On the more upbeat side of the album we have another single "Hazard" which brings us to an 80's sound, mainly driven by the drumbeat. It's a very nice song. So is "Sharing Thoughts" which is one of the best songs on the album. The fantastic drum and guitar work makes it a stand-out.

Overall despite being an instrumental band, LDC four members work for the music and not to show off themselves. By doing so they create this dynamic wall of sound that is very emotional and atmospheric. It's certainly unique. Despite lacking the powerful singing of TRIPS and concluding the album with a lack of a "wow factor", How Do We Want To Live? is another good album from LDC giving the past two albums a run for their money. For old timers and lovers of instrumental indie/post-Rock music, this album is sure to please you.

SCORE: 80/100
Genre: Post Rock
Released by InsideOut Music on June 26th, 2020

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Rating System*
99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

* slightly adapted on May 24th, 2020 due to statistical review
wordcount = 523

Album Review: LAMB OF GOD Lamb Of God (6/19)

Formed in 1994, Richmond, Virginia-based metallers Lamb of God is a significant member of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal movement. They released their first LP Burn the Priest (as Burn the Priest) in 1999. I've seen Lamb of God good a few times during summer festivals which led me to get into their music and to own most of their albums. I do appreciate their sound and lyrics, and of course Randy and the dudes make an awesome live show. But I can't say I am a longtime avid fan. The last two albums were quite good, but different from each other so I was curious to see where they are going now. The 2020 self titled album is their tenth studio album. Lamb of God will be the first studio album of all-new material by the band since 2015's VII: Sturm und Drang, making it the longest gap between their albums, and the first to feature Art Cruz as the replacement of original drummer Chris Adler, who left the band in 2019.

Lamb of God is a straightforward metal album, 10 songs in 45 minutes, no intros, interludes or instrumentals. It's a very groove metal oriented guitar album. It's full of thrash and southern metal guitar riffs. And while the album is very concise, it explores subtle changes and plays with the band's influences. Some of those explorations are heightened by a couple of guests. On "Poison Dream" Jamey Jasta helps bring the hardcore to the front with a song that ended up sounding just like Hatebreed. "Routes" feat. Chuck Billy displays Lamb of God thrash moments. The album closer "On The Hook" continues to explore the thrash side of the band. There's some sludgy songs such as "Resurrection Man" in which the lyrics reminded me immediately of Mercyful Fate's "Evil". "Checkmate" and "Memento Mori" which are the first two singles and first songs on the album are very powerful headbangers. They soon start to sound familiar and you can hear them live in summer festivals among their classic live tunes.

Randy Blythe can not only growl and scream in different ways creating therefore an interesting variety to the album, but he also explores again with clean singing in the track "Bloodshot Eyes". The good thing is it doesn't mean that the song is any less heavy than the rest of the album. The lyrics are as always very influenced by the current state of the world, specially in the USA. For some reason the guitar work, specially the riffage by Mark Morton and Willie Adler impressed me more than on previous albums. Unfortunately not enough solos, but when you find one, it works really well like the cool solo in "Gears".  The new comer Art Cruz did a good job not only holding the drums helm but also bringing new blood and fresh energy to the rest of the band. And John Campbell is a solid bass player with some good moments throughout the album. The production is modern and very clear, balanced and not too loud. Moreover, it's also organic and full of raw energy.

Not a lot to complain here, but in the spirit of being picky, I'd say that Lamb of God could've been a bit bolder with experimenting with styles or sounds, and probably more guitar solos.  The middle part of the album can get me disconnected and there's nothing really standing out to close the record with something different or an wow factor. But those are nuances to an overall very well crafted work.

I'm not a big fan of self titled albums late in one's career, those albums carry a lot of weight and more often than not they don't fulfill the expectations. In Lamb of God's case, it's not really an issue as it is a very good album. It also demarcates a new era for the band and for that the title fits. It's not their best but still a true headbanger of an album that stays true to their own sound and slightly explores a few of their influences. There are some instant classics here and the album is certain to please old and new fans alike.

SCORE: 82/100
Genre: Groove Metal
Released by Nuclear Blast Records on June 19th, 2020

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Rating System*
99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

* slightly adapted on May 24th, 2020 due to statistical review
wordcount = 699

Album Review: MAGNUS KARLSSON'S FREE FALL We Are the Night (6/12)

Magnus Karlsson is a Swedish heavy metal songwriter, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He is currently a session musician and songwriter of Primal Fear. Karlsson is well known as the mastermind behind several Frontiers productions, including the successful Allen/Lande trilogy as well as releases by Starbreaker (with Tony Harnell), Bob Catley, and Kiske/Somerville. Free Fall is his own project with the first full-length studio album being released in 2013. It was a very good album featuring an all star line-up with singers such as Russell Allen, Ralf Scheepers, Rick Altzi, David Readman and Mark Boals. The second album, Kingdom of Rock (2015) also had a great line-up, but I remember it fell flat for me.

Five years later Karlsson is back with the same concept. He writes the music, plays guitars, bass, keyboard and sings a couple of songs, he hires a good drummer, in this case Anders Köllerfors, and a roster of singers. For We Are the Night we have Dino Jelusick (Animal Drive), Renan Zonta (Electric Mob) and Tony Martin (ex-Black Sabbath) in 2 songs each. Noora Louhimo (Battle Beast), Mike Andersson (Cloudscape), and Ronnie Romero (Rainbow) in one song each. This is obviously a much less stellar line-up of singers compared to the previous two albums. However, the performances are actually at par or even better than previously. Here we have quite a few hungry young talents giving all they can on those songs. Additionally, this time around the mixing was done by Jacob Hansen (Volbeat, Primal Fear, Amaranthe, Pretty Maids, etc.). Spoiler alert, the result is the best Free Fall album to date.

The advantage of the Free Fall concept compared to, for example, Avantasia, is that Karlsson let each singer perform a full song by him/herself. That gives character to each song and moreover we don't have to listen to duets all the time. The album is of course full of cliches and it's very predictable but it's all done with high quality and it's super fun and catchy. The melodies immediately become sing-along anthems and the choruses are big and contagious. There are cool power metal riffs, twin guitars, great solos and needless to say outstanding vocal performances. Another positive point is that the one song more on the ballad side is not too mellow and Noora Louhimo delivers it with power. Very often an album like this features a super cheesy ballad with a female singer that completely ruins the album flow for me. But while track four "Queen Of Fire" starts that way, after one minute it becomes a mid-tempo hard rock song that is quite fun to listen to. There's also an instrumental song "On My Way Back To Earth" full of shredding intertwined with some beautiful acoustic guitar arpeggios. It's actually an homage to Steve Morse played on his signature guitar. No wonder I liked it so much.

Dino Jelusick and Renan Zonta performances and songs are the highlights of the album. The only veteran singer Tony Martin does a fine job with his two songs. There are no bad tracks in We Are the Night. That's very often a problem with power metal albums, they get too long and loose steam at the end. Not the case here, albeit a bit long with 12 songs in one hour, the disc sustains the quality till the end. My least favorite songs are "All The Way To The Stars". It's too bad and features a fantastic guitar solo, but maybe too close to being an AOR song and "Don't Walk Away".

I'm glad that We Are the Night release date was kept because with less competing releases, it got the deserved attention. Magnus Karlsson neck for writing catchy melodic metal combined with singers full of talent and energy and wrapped in an above average production is one of the good surprises of the year. The best Free Fall album to date is indeed a power metal blast which can’t be missed by all lovers of European melodic metal!

SCORE: 82/100
Genre: Power Metal
Released by Frontiers Music srl on June 12th, 2020

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Rating System*
99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

* slightly adapted on May 24th, 2020 due to statistical review
wordcount = 666

Album Review: THE GHOST INSIDE The Ghost Inside (6/5)

The Ghost Inside is an American metalcore band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2004 and releasing the first LP in 2008. The Ghost Inside is the self-titled and fifth studio album. It's the band's first album since 2015 drastic tour bus crash that killed their driver and inflicted life-threatening injuries to the band members. It is also their first album to feature rhythm guitarist Chris Davis. I remember when their previous album Dear Youth came out in 2014, not because of the music but because the artwork was an almost copy of The Dillinger Escape Plan's 2013 album cover One of Us Is the Killer. I also must say that Metalcore is not a sub-genre that I listen to a lot, but I do like quite a few bands within this area.

The first single is the final track on the album and it deals head on with their horrific experience. According to bassist Jim Riley "it's the final punctuation on that chapter of our lives". By watching the video it's great to see their positive and inspiring attitude. It won't be a surprise that the whole album is influenced by what they’ve been through. But like the video, the band channeled those emotions in the right way to create an an album with glowing reflection and newfound hope. As a result the songs are energetic and pissed-off . Musically, The Ghost Inside sound a lot like a mix of Killswitch Engage and Parkway Drive. Clean vocals are rarely used and guitar solos even less. There's a fair amount of gang vocals and breakdowns. There are some interesting and heavy songs that I'd love to see in a summer festival such as "Still Alive", "Pressure Point", "Overexposure" and "Phoenix Rise". But there are many less interesting songs with a lack of variability. I did like the few moments of  slightly progressiveness, such as the mid-tempo "Unseen". On the other hand, the clean-vocals-dominated-radio-friendly "One Choice" is not in harmony with the rest of the album and it's too pop-friendly for my taste.

All in all, The Ghost Inside is a remarkable return following horrific bus accident. Lyrically, energy and production-wise, this is a good album. Musically, it is nothing that I haven't heard before and it falls into repetition and lack of distinctiveness. For metalcore fans that don't mind getting more of the same, this is one of the best bets of the year so far in this sub-genre. Welcome back guys!

SCORE: 77/100
Genre: Metalcore
Released by Epitaph Records on June 5th, 2020

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Rating System*
99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

* slightly adapted on May 24th, 2020 due to statistical review
wordcount = 412