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Lost Diamonds Prt. 3 |
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| Ein Artikel von gargantouas vom 03.05.2004 (12601 mal gelesen) |
SACRED RITE - "Sacred Rite"
 Talking about lost diamonds… This is a 24 carat one! If you would decide to call your band SACRED RITE nowadays record shops would automatically put your CD in the black/doom/death section. Not in 1984 however… SACRED RITE was a Hawaiian band that produced this unique guitar oriented heavy metal in which a big role was played by Mark Kaleiwahea (I told you, Hawaiian band…) who not only was one of the best and one of the most underestimated vocalists of his generation, but one of the finest guitar players in the first half of the 80’s… Not only some incredible guitar solos on this baby, but the bass lines are more than impressive for an album made exactly 20 years ago. From the very first notes of 'Wings of Pegasus' to the closing track 'Revelation' everything fits. Superb compositions stuffed with duelling guitar work and addictive rhythms making you want to bang that head throughout the night with the finest aloha girls…
Tracklist :
- Wings of Pegasus
- Angels never die
- White Boy
- The Blade
- Executioner
- R.I.P.
- Revelation
VULCAIN - "Vulcain"
 Singing in a different language than English: it is always a hazardous thing if you have the intention of conquering the metal world. Don’t get me wrong: I think it is a praiseworthy attitude, but the risk of international rejection can’t be underestimated. This band accepted the challenge and although it takes an effort to get adapted to a guy singing in French this is an awesome band!
VULCAIN was the French answer to MOTÖRHEAD. I may seem ridiculous hearing Lemmy sing in French, but Daniel Puzio, who is responsible for music AND lyrics, pulls it off with the greatest ease. A few exceptions left aside the music is fast all the way, but the factor melody is never forgotten nor are the fabulous guitar solos by the singer’s brother Vincent. The production of this album is, considering the limited studio capacities at that time 1984, simply stunning. If you ever have the occasion to listen to 'Rock'n'Roll secours' you’ll be addicted for life. Get out that French study book and “Arrête de jouer a pile ou face”…
Tracklist :
- Ebony
- Le King
- Pile ou Face
- Rock'n'Roll secours
- La digue du cul
- Le fils de Lucifer
- Vulcain
- L’enfer
- Overdose
- Bosser
VENOM - "Welcome To Hell"
 I guess I should have felt it coming. The air was too dark and ominous for that time of year when I entered the record store that forsaken Saturday back in 1981. How was I to know that an hour later my life would never be the same again.
As usual the first thing I did when I closed the door was browsing through the ‘newly arrived’ section when all of a sudden the shop owner tapped me on the back, winked an eye, and said in the lowest voice I ever heard him talk: ‘I ‘ve got something special for you today’… ‘This, my friend’, as he placed an album into my hands, ‘this is something you have never heard’…
I took a closer look at the cover and saw a bizarre drawing of what appeared to be some kind of devils head and the words ‘Welcome to hell’ underneath. When I flipped it over three angry men looked me in the eye for the very first time: Cronos, Mantas and Abbaddon.
I just couldn’t wait to hear this stuff!! So when the needle hit the vinyl I can assure you that 99% of the metal lovers would have left the store in seconds.
To my own amazement I just kept on listening. Aaarrgghh: had I already been spellbound? Was I really welcome to hell? Was I condemned to the sick world of Venom? Visions of agonizing terror and sheer violence send shivers up and down my spine…
This music was simply total mayhem in this DEF LEPPARD era and oh so different from anything ever recorded up to then. I was convinced that if Satan would ever sing he’d sound like Cronos and I truly believed that Mantas descended to the deepest pits of hell to have Beëlzebub himself tune his guitar. Every note produced on this album breathed hatred and bloodshed. Evil was simply written all over it: everything matched: the music, the lyrics, the drawing on the cover, even the picture on the back where the sons of Satan as they called themselves, twisted their bodies and faces to look as mean and vicious as Lucifer on a very bad day.
Later when I rushed home with this album I anxiously hid it from my mother. I guess if she ever saw this album she would A: faint and B: run of for an exorcist for her beloved son…
When the days passed I could hardly convince my friends of VENOM’s qualities, after all: was this still metal? Was it punk? Venom would answer that question in their forthcoming masterpiece: BLACK METAL…
DREAM THEATER - "Images And Words"
 I took out the CD of the case, opened the CD-Rom, the software opens and the magic begins. The E-String of the guitar from one of the biggest guitar heroes on heavy metal is pulled and the only way to catch the feelings of the music is to close the eyes and travel along with the images that this album recreates. How many times this has happened for this release?
How many summers and winters this music accompanied me, it simply sounds so strange when I think of it. 12 years have passed and “Images And Words” still sounds to me like the first time. 12 years after, DREAM THEATER still remains on the top of the progressive metal scene. And this album was their outbreak from anonymity and the source for inspiration for many new bands.
From the hardest moments of the album ‘Pull Me Under’ and ‘Take The Time’, from the more sentimental moments as ‘Another Day’, ‘Surrounded’ and ‘Wait For Sleep’, to the progressive orgies of ‘Metropolis Prt.1’, ‘Under A Glass Moon’ and ‘Learning To Live’, the feelings change and you soon escape from reality.
With a breath-taking James LaBrie, images are accompanied by the poetic words that still sound as the advices of an old wise man that I have never had the chance to talk to. The man that gives me advices on how to live life through his experiences and his narration through his life story…bitter or sweet.
No words can describe my feelings towards this release. I hope I was quite close. One of the most classic albums of the 90s, not only for what it meant for this magnificent band, but also for the big impact it had on the following progressive metal bands.
“The way that your heart sounds, makes all the different in learning to live”
Tracklist:
- Pull Me Under
- Another Day
- Take The Time
- Surrounded
- Metropolis Prt.1
- Under A Glass Moon
- Wait For Sleep
- Learning To Live
QUEENSRYCHE - "Operation: Mindcrime"
 When a forgotten copy of “Operation: Mindcrime” slipped from the CD case asking from me to listen to it one more time I knew exactly that I should write a few things about it.
Let’s be honest with each other. Albums like this one are not released anymore. Or better, we cannot understand their classic definition, if more than a decade has passed. Few people could understand what QUEENSRYCHE did with “Rage For Order” back in 1986 and the reviews were more than bad. Almost 20 years later, “Rage For Order” is hailed as one of the first ever progressive metal tries by the metal community. “Operation: Mindcrime” was hailed from these days as an album that would remain on the heavy metal scene as a diamond, as an album that would change forever the scene.
My view on this album is that QUEENSRYCHE managed to create a release that first of all was art. I cannot think of anyone listening to “Operation: Mindcrime” and not have chills running through his/her spine through the love story of Mary and the starring character of the concept or the conspiracy that this man faces through his betrayal of religion and political beliefs. Something that applies even through these days, doesn’t it? And that is why this album is so big, by all means.
Either way, from the 3rd of May of 1988 that “Operation: Mindcrime” saw the light of day, everyone also agreed that metal could not be played in a better way so that it will draw attention from people that liked other kind of music. Mainstream but also metal, chart potential but also artistic were the main characterizations. Many think even through these days that this album is one responsible for bringing more people to the heavy metal scene. And how could it be in any other way? Songs like ‘I don’t Believe in Love’, ‘Eyes Of A Stranger’, ‘Breaking The Silence’, ‘The Mission’, ‘Revolution Calling’ are some of the best heavy metal tunes ever while being mainstream with their melodies on the same time. The dark feelings of the title track, ‘Speak’, ‘Spreading The Disease’, ‘Electric Requiem’ or the just rocking moments of ‘The Needle Lies’ tie up the puzzle of different sounds and moods.
For the last and the best I have left the so-called ‘epic’ nowadays, song of the album. ‘Suite Sister Mary’ that describes the death of Mary, is simply breath taking, with Pamela Moore making some of the best female vocals I have ever heard on a heavy metal album. Through the 10 minutes of the song you are carried to the cold night rainy streets of the big town that the story is told, and you live through every second, every note the death of Mary. What one can say about the performance of Geoff Tate on this song (and on the whole album of course) and the dialogue with Pamela Moore.
Either way, ‘Suite Sister Mary’ is the peak of this album and that says a lot. “Operation: Mindcrime” remains as the best release of QUEENSRYCHE up to now, and from the moment it was released everybody is expecting something on the same quality from the band from Seattle. Up to now, I can’t say that they have achieved that, but there is time. It is really a shame that no director from Hollywood or on any other place on the world hasn’t directed yet this magnificent story as a movie. Wouldn’t that be a delight for the eyes and the ears?
Tracklist:
- I Remember Now
- Anarchy X
- Revolution Calling
- Operation: Mindcrime
- The Needle Lies
- Speak
- Spreading The Disease
- The Mission
- Suite Sister Mary
- Electric Requiem
- Breaking The Silence
- I Don’t Believe In Love
- Waiting For 22
- My Empty Room
- Eyes Of A Stranger
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