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EP review – Seed of Sadness

I received a random email through my blog a few weeks ago from Mike G, who’s bassist with Greek metal band Seed of Sadness. He offered me a digital copy of their first professionally-recorded 5-track EP in exchange for a review. I’ve not had an offer like this inÂ years, since the old “Mosher’s Music Page” which is mothballed somewhere. So, obviously I replied in the positive.

Then found myself working a 70-hour week, away for a fortnight for our wedding/honeymoon and buried in work once again upon my return. Whoops.

I spotted his email again earlier today and promised myself I’d get it done before I went out this evening – to see a handful of other unsigned bands, as it happens.

I’ve only had a chance to listen to the tracks three or four times each and overall I am very impressed. Not just at the quality (song-writing, musicianship and production), but as they’re also very much my kind of thing. The sound could be classed as “melodic rock”, but that seems to be a general term for any metal with a keyboard in it for some reason. The lead vocalist is female and has the awesome name Stellaria. As far as I can tell, this is actually her name and not some stage identity. I have decided that Greek people have cool names.

She also has a hell of a voice, easily as good as anyone involved with the bigger female-fronted bands such as Nightwish, Evanescense and Within Temptation. I know there are many other bands out there, such as Lacuna Coil and Arch Enemy, but Seed of Sadness are definitely more in tune with the first three.

The other three chaps in the band, along with Stellaria, are pretty well trained musicians and their bio lists the people who taught them and the music schools they went to. Nowhere I’ve heard of, but it does tell you that this quartet are serious about what they’re doing.

OK, the songs. There are five on the EP and the quality is high. There’s good variety in the songs, while the band still manage to keep a sound of their own in there. No pandering to genres in the hopes of covering their bases. Opener “Remnant of a Dying Smile” is probably the best insofar as being quite catchy. If I have an issue with it, it’s the keyboards. The melody is fine, but I find the actual sound of them quite distracting in places. I’m not sure how to describe this as a non-musician, but you know you can make a keyboard play different types of sounds when you press a key? The notes in this song are a sound which hits, goes down in volume and then comes up again. It really messes with my ears.

Anyway, this little issue aside it’s a great song. I genuinely heard myself saying “This… is pretty ******* good” to myself during the first listen.

The other tracks, especially number 2 (“King of Loss”), took a little longer to grow on me. But four/five listens down the line (I’m listening through the EP again as I write this) and I’m suitably impressed.

Their bio mentions that they have ten songs written, with these first five the only ones recorded so far. On the strength of what I’ve heard, I wish them all the luck they deserve and hope to see them popping up in support slots in coming months.

Thanks to Mike for spotting my blog and giving me the chance to find out about the band. More info can be found on their facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/SeedofSadness

And, even better than that, the EP is available for download at the cracking cost ofÂ nothing at all from:

http://seedofsadness.bandcamp.com

If you prefer to pay them for a copy (â‚¬4 or more), then you get pre-order advance notices for the forthcoming album, discounts on merchandise and so on.

Motorhead / Anthrax – Glasgow O2 Academy

[Full sets of pics on Flickr: Anthrax / Motorhead]

Another year, another Motorhead gig. They seem to play on a regular basis like Status Quo and Bowling For Soup, but this time they brought one of my favourite bands with them – New York thrash-masters Anthrax.

Oh, and openers Diaries of a Hero. We caught about five minutes of them due to Gillian’s requirement for sustenance, but what little we saw seemed OK. Nothing special, but worth a listen.

Always seeming to be the little cousin in relation to the remainder of the “Big 4” thrash bands (Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica), Anthrax have always topped my list especially when it comes to live performances. While the others are brutal (Slayer), technically impressive (Megadeth, back in the day) or overblown (Metallica), Anthrax have always just been plain good fun.

Judging from the size of the crowd crammed in for their 8:15-ish start, a fair number had made the effort to catch them and they weren’t to be disappointed. Well, except for the fact that they weren’t headlining so only had the chance to play a handful of songs.Â With around 45 minutes to fill in the support slot (it may have been longer, but the time simplyÂ flew), they managed to cover a fair amount of their history from the likes ofÂ “Madhouse” to “Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t” from current albumÂ Worship Music.

“Antisocial” had the crowd punching the air, “Indians” kicked the pit off into the traditional war dance, “Got The Time” rattled by at a rate of knots and the short set was tied up with classic Judge Dredd ballad “I Am The Law”.

Frankly, I’m getting too old for this **** so a short set was probably the best thing for my physically. I was near collapse by the time the last shouts of “I… Am… The… LAAAAAAAAWWWWW!!!” petered out, but I would have happily run myself into the ground for another eight songs. A brilliant set from a brilliant band whose only issue seems to be an unwillingness to commit to a full UK headlining tour.

Headliners tonight, though, were the long-running Motorhead. Lemmy and co wandered onto the stage calm as you like and unleashed an impressive set with seemingly no effort at all. I’m not a huge fan and, in all honesty, if Anthrax hadn’t been on the bill I’d not have bothered with tickets but there’s nothing wrong with ninety minutes of classic heavy rock’n’roll.

We ended up moving right to the back of the venue near the doors. Partly for easy access to the bar and partly because the sound in the Academy is ****. The songs were actually almost audible near the exits. A shame for such a popular music venue when the key reason for its being is one of its weakest points.

Nevertheless, with a set encompassing the liked of “The One To Sing The Blues“, “Killed By Death“, “Ace of Spades” and “Overkill” I don’t think any of the die-hards left unsatisfied.

Now, Anthrax – about that headlining tour… GET IT SORTED!

Sabaton / Eluvetie / Wisdom – Glasgow Garage

[Links to pictures on Flickr: Sabaton / Eluvetie / Wisdom]

It’s a bit of a surprise when you go to the pinboard in the office to get your ticket for a gig then realise that there areÂ two stuck up there. Annoyingly, Gillian had a shedload of work to do that she couldn’t put by. One quick phone call to a local dinosaur meant that the ticket would not be wasted, however, and Dean and I headed into the city just in time to get parked and join the horrifically long queue outside the Garage.

Fifteen minutes later, we managed to get in (just as they decided to only search people with bags otherwise those at the tail end would have barely caught the encore at the close of the evening) and saw around four minutes of opening band Wisdom. A crying shame as they sounded pretty good, much like (and I credit Mike for this description) Manowar with Bruce Dickinson on vocals. Maybe I’ll catch them again at another gig when I can actually get into a venue in reasonable time.

A short set change later saw an impressive sight for the small-ish Garage stage Â – eight-piece Swiss folk metal bandÂ Eluvetie. All the more impressive given that they only had half the stage to work with as Sabaton‘s kit was already set up behind theirs. Say what you like about folk metal, I’ve all the time in the world for anyone who can play about a dozen instruments and it seems that being multi-talented is aÂ prerequisiteÂ for joining this ensemble.

I may miss some out here, or get names wrong, but do please bear with me. I spotted a hurdy gurdy, violin, two vocalists, bagpipe, flute, recorder, two guitars, bass, drums, piccolo, harp, lute, and two instruments I couldn’t even think of naming including one with a horned skull embedded in it. If there was an obvious problem with this orchestra it was that there was no hope for the poor sound tech to ensure that all the instruments were mixed as well as they would be in a studio, but he did his best.

Not my cup of extinct Gaulish tea, but they got a rousing reception (deservedly do) and will undoubtedly appeal to fans of the likes of Ensiferum. My taste in folk metal leans more heavily towards early Skyclad which is a bit more rock and less death metal.

Sabaton themselves took to the stage at a worryingly late hour as I assumed there would be a 10pm curfew. Thankfully this wasn’t the case as they chose to play theÂ entire of Europe’s “The Final Countdown” as their introduction. Guys, the opening minute would have been perfect! And have given you time for another song! Anyway, that was the only whinge of the evening.

Their first Scottish appearance since they opened for Dragonforce in 2006 has seen them rise from “who?” to venue-fillers and deservedly so. Their performance is energetic, varied, humorous and fast-paced. Their music, with its lyrical grounding in many historical events, panders to the prides of many nations and it was no surprise to see the Polish flags and scarves going mental when “40:1” was pounded out near the start of the set.

Indeed, the band pandered to the home crowd with Saltire-backprinted t-shirts on sale downstairs and Braveheart-esque blue face and body paint well applied. And kilts. Which were worn in the traditional manner as evidenced at the end of their set!

The three new members were introduced to the crowd late in the concert to a lot of well-deserved cheering. For a band to lose four of six members in one go and then continue is pretty impressive and the replacements certainly fit in very well.

They went through a few tracks from the new albumÂ Carolus Rex including one track (“The Carolean’s Prayer”) in Swedish. Joakim thought he would get away with any lyrical mistakes until he spotted a sizeable group of Swedes near the front of the stage… very much an international evening at the Garage! The set-list was not set in stone, with the band twice pausing to give the audience a choice of two or three songs to pick from. I can attest that on both occasions the band went with the title that gained the loudest cheer.

As I’m sure the photos will prove, the band battered their way through the set with big cheesy grins plastered on their faces which mirrored those of the crowd. Joakim is a great front man, quite happy to rattle off a quick story without taking up too much time and without pandering too much to the stereotypical bits of speech used by pretty much every rock band in the world ever.

He also showed himself to be quite the musician as well, taking to the keyboard briefly (playing some Van Halen and Abba). The whole band performed as if they’d been together for years, not just months and they left the crowd, as the manual states they should, begging for more. My only complaint was a lack ofÂ “Screaming Eagles”. Oh, and “The Price of a Mile”. OK, and about four or five others. It’s not my fault their back-catalogue is filled with so many good songs.

An absolutely superb set from a great band who I can’t wait to see again.

Shinedown – Edinburgh HMV Picture House

[Complete set of photos available on Flickr]

I’m writing this eight days after the gig as a result of a ridiculous workload, so apologies if it’s not as precise as other reviews. It’s certainly no reflection on the band themselves who were superb.

We managed to get there and find the lovely Wendi at around 8:30, so we missed the support band (who we’d not heard of anyway). Parking near the Picture House is a bugger at the best of times if you don’t want to pay a fortune at the NCP round the back, but with Alice Cooper playing 200 yards away at the Playhouse, all the free spaces were pretty much gone by half six.

Shinedown are a great live band as I’m sure I ranted about back in February when they played the Academy. The Picture House is a smaller venue, I’m sure, but they treated it the same – they may as well have been at an arena.

With the new album,Â Amaryllis, having been out for a few months now, several songs from it made an appearance after a handful of them had been slipped in during the gig earlier in the year. This is a good thing as it’s a superb piece of work with not a bad track on it. They were as well-received as the older stuff (which included a couple of trips back to the first album).

Brent Smith is a superb front man who looms like a giant on stage. He managed to re-word the usual “you’re the best crowd we’ve ever played to” speech to make it a little less predictable and enjoyed a couple of speeches that would have made Bruce Dickinson proud. One of them has had my head ticking since the gig and will result in another blog post once I have the time. Mainly it was due to the fact that I’d had the squits for a day before the concert, and I was flying high on virtually no food for 24 hours and a need to clench my buttocks for 90 minutes so that I didn’t miss any of their set.

Despite a “strict curfew” of 10pm, the band managed to stay on stage until almost quarter past playing nothing but great song after great song. I don’t think there’s another band around right now with so many tracks which can make the hair stand up on your neck as soon as you hear the intro. It amazes me that they’re still playing venues of this size, but I’m revelling in it before they start ramping up the gig capacities and the ticket prices to go with it.

Long may they rock. And if you missed out on this tour, keep an eye out for the next one.

Shinedown: We’ve Already Recorded a New Album (loudwire.com)

Nickelback / Daughtry, Newcastle Arena

[All pictures of both bands available on Flickr here: Daughtry / Nickelback]

Alright, let’s get this clear. Yes, I went to a Nickelback gig. No, I don’t care what you think. I am aware there was a Rock Radio reunion party and a Soulfly gig on in Glasgow on the same night, but those tickets went on sale after the Newcastle Arena ones for Nickelback. I still don’t get why they couldn’t fit in a date at the SECC to save me Â£70 in petrol, but hey.

Due to the distance, we got there around half seven – just in time to see the tail end of Daughtry. I’ve never heard of them, or the guy the band is named after, but apparently he’s a raging success after coming 4th in American Idol. That alone would have been enough to put me off him had I not seen the band perform first. Would I rush out and buy all their material? No. Would I turn the songs off if they came on the radio? Also no. Not bad, certainly talented, but just not raising the right neck-hairs for me.

Oh, around three minutes after we got there I had a nice, polite young lady in a yellow shirt telling me to put my camera away as the Nickelback production crew had insisted nobody was to take photos of the performance. I understood her position and she obviously wasn’t in agreement with it, so we moved somewhere into the crowd where nobody would be able to tap me on the shoulder. Seriously, in this day and age? Wake up, “Nickelback’s production crew”, you’re not losing any money from a few fans putting shots up on Twitter or wherever.

While I’m whinging, and before I get to the good stuff, I’d also like to mention that if you’re going to light a cigarette in a venue in the UK, please remember that a) it stinks, b) not to do it anywhere near me and c) it’s actually illegal and can have you fined and ejected. That message for the stupid bint behind me who at least ditched it when I told her quite firmly to do so. Also, petal, go and see a dentist. The smell coming over my shoulder from you was like someone trying to disguise chronic halitosis with cheap perfume and half a kilo of Floral Gums.

The Arena was packed, as far as I could tell, and the headliners came on around 9pm. Going for the “impressive light show” style of performance, they were never going to hit the visual heights of Rammstein (who the hell can?) but they probably used enough wattage to light up the moon had this been an open-air venue. The two drop-screens at the side catered for those at the back of the venue while the three large strip screens behind the stage alternated between choreographed footage, effects and live images as the show progressed. Impressive stuff.

Despite putting on such a huge show, the band themselves don’t really come across as rock and roll “stars” in the way that some “larger-than-life” characters like Slash or Motley Crue often do. They seem more down to earth, interested in playing music and talking to the audience rather than using the stage as some kind of ego-boosting platform. Certainly, the banter was amusing and became slightly more sweary as the evening wore on and Chad downed more shots!

You could never say “all the hits were present” when you have a back-catalogue littered with top ten singles the way Nickelback do, especially when they’re obliged to play material off a new album. Many recognisable tunes were belted out, though, and in my personal view the best were saved for last with the set ending on a particularly good high.

Shouts were encouraged from the audience and there was much punching of the air and waving of devil horns as choruses kicked in. The guitar tech (well, the younger brother of the old one who’s gone off to seek his own fortune) was brought on stage to play a couple of songs, Daughtry joined them for a while, and beer was flung into the crowd along with the famous t-shirt cannons being used to distribute some free merchandise. This, as a rock and roll show, ticked all of the boxes.

Certainly when the last notes died out and the lights came up, the time seemed to have flown. As we walked out into the chilly night (unable to retrieve a ticket for my collection – who do they collect the damn things in? Why? I am missing two tickets from my collection, both from this venue!), Gillian was bouncing and we both reckoned it was worth the trip down.

So to all the “haters”: grow up. Are Nickelback commercially successful? Of course. Are they sell-outs? I don’t think so. I just don’t get why some people will heap loathing onto this Canadian band while going on about how great the Foo Fighters are. Both bands play similar types of music to similar audiences. Open your ears, watch a show and enjoy the entertainment. I’ll always prefer something heavier – Nickelback, to me, will never put on as good a show as Slipknot, Rammstein or Slayer for instance – but that doesn’t stop them being great fun for those ninety minutes.

Just next time, guys… play Glasgow, eh?

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