The Solace System by Epica – song review

Since I started this blog I have been waiting for a moment when I could talk about this band in greater detail. If you know anything about me then you know that alongside Nightwish Epica has always been my #1 artist. So, let’s make little introduction for this amazing band called Epica

Epica is a Dutch symphonic metal band, founded by guitarist and vocalist Mark Jansen after his departure from After Forever. They have released seven albums so far and constantly improved with every released album. “The Holographic Principle” was my favorite album of last year and I had four Epica songs in my top 25 best songs of 2016. Click here for the top 25 list Actually, I had to put four songs per artist rule because without it I would end up with at least eight songs from that album on the list.

In 2017 Epica out of nowhere released single for upcoming EP called “The Solace System”. So is “The Solace System” any good?

No Words Spoken EP by CrazyEightyEight

July 2nd is the day when CrazyEightyEight(Jarrod Alonge’s and Lauren Babic’s side project) releases their new EP called No Words Spoken. This is not their debut EP since they have already released covers EP with covers of songs by The Killers, The 1975, Halsey and MCR. Check it out. It is pretty good.

So it this EP as good as last one?

Retrospect by Rest,Repose – song review

Rest, Repose is an five piece American heavy metal band that consists of:

Tanner – Vocals
Josh – Bass
Jared – Drums
Tony – Guitars
Fluff – Guitars

My interest for this band was sparked by being a fan of Jared’s and Fluff’s Youtube channels and thus for I checked out their debut EP “The Sleep City” when it got released. That EP featured different singer but we won’t talk about that today. To be fair I liked that EP quite a bit. Very good try on very melodic metal. It had very mainstream sound which I respect a ton. Finally we got band full of talented musicians playing very mainstream sound of metal.

When they announced that they will be releasing their debut album and first single of that album I was intrigued. So, what do we get with “Retrospect”?

The Source by Ayreon – album review

Ayreon is a musical project by Dutch songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist musician and record producer Arjen Anthony Lucassen. Ayreon’s music is described as progressive rock, progressive metal and power metal sometimes combined with genres such as folk, electronica, experimental and classical music. The majority of Ayreon’s albums are dubbed “rock operas” (or “metal operas”) because the albums contain complex storylines featuring a host of characters, usually with each one being represented by a unique vocalist.

Number of musicians Arjen worked with is very large. That list includes some of the biggest names in the metal and rock universe such as Bruce Dickinson, Marco Hietala, James LaBrie. Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, Ken Hensley, Russel Allen and many more. On this new album “The Source” Arjen introduced some new names to already very big pool of singers he worked with such as Micheal Mills (Circus Maximus), Nils K. Rue (Pagan’s Mind), Tommy Rogers(Between the Buried And Me) and Zaher Zorgati (Myrath). Here is a full list of every single vocalist featured on the album:  James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Simone Simons (Epica), Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian), Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia), Tommy Karevik (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder), and Russell Allen (Symphony X), Micheal Mills (Circus Maximus), Nils K. Rue (Pagan’s Mind), Tommy Rogers(Between the Buried And Me) and Zaher Zorgati (Myrath).  for a total of eleven main vocalists.

Album is divided in four chronicles. The Frame, The Aligning of the Ten, The Transmigration and The Rebirth. At the end of every chronicle something big happens, but that is something I will discuss later.

Ayreon was always one of my favorite bands(if you can call it a band since it is a more of a project). “The Human Equation”, “Into The Electric Castle” and “01011001” are some of my favorite albums of all time with “The Human Equation” being favorite out of those 3 so it is clear that I have high expectations from Ayreon

2017 marks the year when Ayreon releases another album. This time it’s called “The Source”. So, did “The Source” meet my expectations?

The Strange Case Of… by Halestorm – Fifth year anniversary review

Halestorm is an American hard rock band from Red Lion, Pennsylvania, consisting of lead vocalist and guitarist Lzzy Hale, her brother drummer and percussionist Arejay Hale, guitarist Joe Hottinger, and bassist Josh Smith.

In 2009, Halestorm released their debut self tilted album where they showed a lot of potential which will be improved on later albums. Album features really good guitar work and extremely good vocals done by vocal powerhouse Elizabeth Lzzy Hale. Songs like “I’m Not An Angel”  showed that Halestorm is capable of writing really good power ballads and not lose what made them good. Overall this is really good debut album full of good and really good songs.

 

3 years later, after one good covers EP and one really good live album Halestorm released their sophomore album called The Strange Case Of… Was Halestorm another band that was victim of sophomore slump?

Top 20 Billboard Mainstream rock songs chart ranked

Mainstream Rock is a music chart in Billboard magazine which ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. Now that you know how the chart work let’s get right into the ranking.

Black Hoodie by Body Count – song review

Body Count is American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. They were formed in 1990 by Ice-T and Ernie C. They released their debut album in  1992 and already on their debut album one song was very controversial. Name of the song is “Cop Killer” and you can already understand why it was very controversial. Later it was taken off the album and this is what Ice-T said about that song:

“I thought I was safe. I thought within the world of rock’n’roll, you could be free to write what you want. Hell, I was listening to Talking Heads singin’ ‘Psycho Killer.’ Fuck it, I’ll make ‘Cop Killer’! But, that was the cross of metal with something that was real. Now we’re not just killing your family, we’re killing somebody so real that everybody just went, ‘oh shit.'”

So in 2017 Body Count is back with yet another set of very political songs. Before this song they released “No Lives Matter” and “Ski Mask Away” and now they released “Black Hoodie”. So how good is “Black Hoodie”?