Iron Maiden: Live Review

Having seen the famous British heavy metal band at Sonisphere 2010, where they headlined the Sunday and brought the festival to a close, I was expecting great things from Iron Maiden this year, and I wasn't disappointed. Their Final Frontier World Tour finally reached the UK where they played an extensive stadium tour ending in two dates at the London o2 arena. I saw them at Cardiff International Arena when they played on 1st August.

Opening with Satellite 15... The Final Frontier (after UFO's Doctor Doctor was played on the PA system) their set began, with the low key first half of the song teasing at the crowd as they waited for the curtain to drop when the second half began. Before the gig I had my problems with that song, I felt that the first half was too long and was something you had to sit through in order to hear the better second part. I still feel that way but I really enjoyed the song live, but my view is that it only works as an opener, if they were to play it in the middle of a set a lot of the crowd's energy would be lost.

Afterwards they moved onto El Dorado, a track from their newest album (The Final Frontier), which I include as one of their classics. Next up was my highlight of the gig: 2 Minutes to Midnight. This song was like a shot of adrenaline for the already pumped crowd. I remember being very close to the front (which I was for the entire gig) and leaping as high as I possibly could into the air. I enjoy the studio version of the song, but I feel that it works much better as a live track.


Later on the crowd was graced with the beautiful, flowing, chorus of Coming Home; one of the songs that, I'll be honest, makes The Final Frontier, worth listening to. Not that it's terrible, it's no The X Factor, but many of the songs, while entertaining, are in the dangerous category of "filler". Coming Home, however, is a masterpiece, both on CD and in concert.

The opening notes to the next song, Dance of Death, put a massive smile on my face that lingered for a long time. Possibly the best ballad Maiden have ever written, it's subtle acoustic parts are directly contrasted with heavier riffs, and the lyrical content gives the song a darker edge with it's talk of the devil and things rising from hell. This is one of the songs that I've now seen live twice, as the played it at Sonisphere 2010, and I loved it both times.

By Scott Penner [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31648498@N00/4771190892



A couple of tracks later they played The Wicker Man. Personally I thought this was the weakest song of the whole set. I never thought it was that good a song; I feel that the chorus is boring and repetitive and that the overall song is just uninteresting. However the crowd loved it, so I suppose this may be one of the opinions that few people share. For the record I have similar feelings about Run to the Hills, although not to the same extent.

The 10th track they played was the epic ballad from their 2010 album. When the Wild Wind Blows was a change from the heavier songs that had gone before it but the crowd loved it just the same; and so did I. The soft vocals talk of the end of the world with such grace that the song seems to rise and fall with ease to the delight of the audience. A great song.

Next up was The Evil That Men Do, a classic from the album: Seventh Son of a Seventh Song, which I loved. There's a small part of the song which I like even more than the rest; when the lyrics go:

"And I will pray for her,

I will call her name out loud.

I would bleed for her,

if I could only see her now"

Something about those lines always gets me and it really defines the song for me; speaking about the nature of humanity.

Finally the band ended the gig the way they usually do; by embarking upon a storm of classics. Fear of the Dark had it's guaranteed effect of making the crowd sing out louder than ever before. Their self titled track featured a giant Eddie (their mascot) head which appeared behind the stage and glared around at the audience. They returned for their encore which began with The Number of the Beast. Hallowed Be Thy Name showed Bruce Dickinson's vocal talent once more as he soared through the extended notes and really brought across the plight of the song's narrator; a prisoner waiting for the gallows. The studio version, on the album The Number of the Beast, is in my opinion Dickinson's finest performance of his career with Maiden. Finally the band left the stage after playing through the ever-popular Running Free.

By Mike Lawrence (Flickr: Iron Maiden) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98945462@N00/5970616949


Overall it was a fantastic gig, in fact it's the best I've ever been to I think, with Mastodon at the o2 Academy in Bristol last February in second place. I enjoyed every song and I felt that the setlist for this gig was better than the one they played at Sonisphere 2010 which had too many rarities and not enough classics. This time they added 2 Minutes to Midnight, The Trooper, and The Evil That Men Do which improved the ratio of rarities to classics (6:10). The band have already hinted at a new album, which I'm guessing will be released in around September of 2012 since they seem to average an album every 2 years. Roll on the next tour!

(Legal) Free Music

In these days of file sharing and illegal downloading it's possible to get the vast majority of music for free. It's a fact that the lost revenue from album sales due to this is killing the music industry. However it's also true that if one can obtain a band's album for free more people are likely to listen to it. So often as a result of file sharing a band's popularity can increase dramatically, however popularity on its own won't keep a band going, what is needed is album and ticket sales. As a result of this many artists have released portions of their work for free download online. Since the artist themselves have allowed this it has the benefit to the downloader of being entirely legal.

Releasing albums for free download has been going for a while now. It was made famous in 2007 when alternative rockers Radiohead allowed fans to set their own price when downloading their album. Since Radiohead did this many bands have followed suit. So now there are numerous artists out there who let people obtain their work for free. In this article I'll detail a few of these that I've come across during my internet wanderings.

Dahlia Seed

Dahlia Seed were a hardcore band from North Carolina, USA. They were in existence for only 4 years, from 1992-96, but during that time produced some great work. As far as I know they produced three albums, one of which is a compilation of new studio tracks and live versions of songs from previous works. All of these are available to download for free from their website at: http://www.dahliaseed.com/. I've so far listened to two of their albums of which their debut album Valentine Kid's Litter is my favourite. At 160kbps the recording quality isn't fantastic, and sometimes this shows where songs feel a little rough around the edges. However it's not really a problem as the overall tone the band uses is a little distorted (intentionally) anyway. The power of this band is astonishing, their songs are fuelled with a great energy. This is due largely to the vocals of Tracy Wilson whose ferocity electrifies the music and brings the raw emotion of the songs to the fore. As far as particular highlights of this album go, I'd have to say my favourite songs are Teas and Milk. Teas starts with a great riff before launching into a bridge-type part which leads into the main section. As an overall piece the song isn't perfect, but it's very catchy. Milk is the best example of the way Wilson's vocals captivate, the emotions of regret and hate in the lyrics are brought across to the listener with the force of a battering ram. Dahlia Seed are a band with a level of raw power that many bigger and more popular bands lack.

Dia de los Muertos

Another band that alllows some of their music to be downloaded free of charge is Dia de los Muertos, these metallers hail from Los Angeles, California. Like with many other legal free albums, in order to get the music you need to fill in a form. The album they offer is called Satánico Dramático, which translates as something along the lines of "Satanic Drama". The vocals are in spanish, but this isn't always obvious as, like a lot of death metal, the lyrics can't always be understood. The music itself isn't all that unique, but the use of spanish guitar in places is a nice touch. Their Myspace is here: http://www.myspace.com/quevivanlosmuertos.

I Have Clones

I came across this project today and have taken a liking to it. It's a nice combination of Electronica and Hardcore. The songs are often interspersed with speaking, with the occasional snatches of conversation that are present for just the right amount of time, which add a splash of creativity to the music that is already fairly inventive. Since I've only listened to the album once I can't say too much about it without listening more (which I plan to do in the future), but it's definitely worth the bandwidth it takes to download (it took about 3 minutes on my very poor connection) and the time spent listening to it. Here's the link to their website: http://ihaveclones.com/.

Credit where credit is due: Two of the above bands (Dahlia Seed and I Have Clones) I discovered using this blog: http://freealbums.blogsome.com/, so please give them the praise for finding the bands. The other band (Dia de los Muertos) I found on the website of the UK magazine Classic Rock, their website can be found here: http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/ so please don't give me credit for locating them either.

Well that's all for now. I won't say when I'll be back, since I don't know, but I hope to be back soon. Just think this is the second proper entry in 2 days, I think that's some sort of record for me.

Thanks,

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I feel obliged to say that, through this article or in general, I am not condoning or supporting illegally obtaining music or any other intellectual material. I also feel the need to say that I am not affiliated in any way to any of the above bands, websites or corporations thereof and will make no profit from purchases from any of those bands, websites or coporations, or the publication of this article.

Notable Artists... V

The erraticness of this blog is definitely a defining aspect of its character in my eyes, but then that's implied by the name. After all this blog is meant to be a "Malfunctioning" guide to the world of music. Anyway, I feel that an article that praised the majesty and talent of one of my favourite bands was long overdue.

Tool are an American rock band who specialise in a type of metal that is as unique as it is astonishing. Forming in 1990 they have so far released four full albums:

• Undertow- 1994
• Aenima- 1996
• Lateralus- 2001
• 10,000 Days- 2006

As well as these four albums they also released an EP in 1992 entitled Opiate. In my opinion each of these albums is phenomenal and choosing a favourite was tough. It was always going to be a contest between Lateralus and 10,000 Days.

Lateralus:

A smorgasbord of fantastic tracks that, as with all Tool's albums, contribute towards an overall piece that is greater than the sum of its parts. The title track Lateralus is definitely the best track on the album for me, the introduction's buildup is masterful before leading into a crushing riff. However Lateralus is by no means the only good song on the album; the tracks Parabol and Parabola. These tracks cannot be played individually as the former leads seamlessly into the latter, the slight pause in between the two placing emphasis on the power of the riff that follows. There are so many great tracks on this album, it's impossible to pick any to be described as "filler".

10,000 Days:

As with Lateralus this album is full of amazing songs which form an overall album that is greater than all its individual elements. The album kicks off with the sheer might of Vicarious with lyrics that really speak to the listener, drawing them in. If I'm forced to pick a highlight from the album, which I admit is very difficult, I'd have to say that Vicarious is one of my two favourite tracks from the album. Following this the listener is then thrown into the powerful introduction to Jambi another track that adds a dose of sheer power to the album. My other highlight is the title song: 10,000 Days (Wings Part 2). This song speaks of suffering and this is brought strongly across by the intensity of Maynard James Keenan's vocals. The reason that it has the suffix (Wings Part 2) is that if played at exactly the same time as the song that comes before it in the album (Wings for Marie (Part 1)) a whole new track is formed. I could go on about this album for a very long time; talking about tracks like Lost Keys (Blame Hoffman) and Rosetta Stoned and even if I mentioned those two I'd be skipping out others that deserve a mention. In short this album is a masterpiece.

So overall I finally managed to ascertain that by a tiny amount 10,000 Days takes the title as my favourite Tool album, but I cannot stress enough how difficult that decision was to make. Lateralus is a phenomenal piece of artistic creation and the others are the same. Tool are definitely in my top 5 bands (a decision made by me, how novel) and are very near the top of my "Bands to see" list.

Cheers,

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Top Shelf Records

Greetings all. I recently downloaded a selection of albums for free from Top Shelf Records, it's their fifth anniversary and to mark the occasion they were offering a bundle of albums and EPs from their label for free. Their website can be found here: http://www.topshelfrecords.org/

I'm part way through perusing the collection from the zip file I downloaded from their site. It's a nice mix, not everything in it is "my thing" but then it wouldn't be a collection would it? I have a varied music taste but it doesn't quite encompass the entire world of musical diversity.

Anyway, so the bands in the bundle. I'll begin with the first and end with the finale. Actually I'll just find them from the folder in some semblence of coherent cohesion. With the alliteration out of the way I'll move onto the bands. In the bundle are:

• Caravels
• Into It. Over It.
• Castevet
• Lion Club
• Stand Up. Get Down.
• The Clippers
• The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die
• Us Against the Archers
• Aeroplane, 1929

It's a very varied bunch. Ugh, no more alliteration, must not use to much rhetoric in these posts. Of the ones that I've listened to my two favourites are Caravels and Stand Up. Get Down. They've got a great sound and energy to them. I also think Us Against the Archers are ok as well. Although in one of their tracks they used a fake clap effect, and it made me cringe. I don't know why but I've discovered I find fake clap effects terribly annoying. However a fake clap track was used in another track from the bundle, this time from a different band, and somehow I was able to tolerate it. It wasn’t quite as garish, slightly more subtle. Mind you it still annoyed me, and I was pleased when the ten seconds of its use were over. So I think this is a conclusion, it may be the first I’ve come to since this blog began back in 2009. I don’t like fake clap sounds. At all.

Cheers,

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The Final Frontier: Review

Recently I managed to get hold of the new Iron Maiden album- The Final Frontier, in fact I went and got it the day it was released. In this entry I aim to review it in full. As you may well know I am an Iron Maiden fan, so I will be biased, but I will try and make this an accurate critique of the album.

Ok, here goes. The album starts with a track called Satellite 15..... The Final Frontier. This is a two part song. The first part (Satellite 15) is a very atmospheric song, with roughly the first half being instrumental. It's not bad, but I feel it is too long. It should be shorter, acting as an into to The Final Frontier. The second half of the song, The Final Frontier is a straightforward Iron Maiden classic, it's got the clear chorus, and would easily fit into a live set.

El Dorado, the second track of the album, was previously released as a free download from the Iron Maiden website. I downloaded this the day it was available I believe, but it took me a couple of listens to really get into it. After about two or three times through it dawned on me that this is actually a fantastic track. The lyrics are tight, creative, and the vocals are well delivered. Overall this is one of the best tracks on the album.

The next two tracks: Mother of Mercy and Coming Home are both good tracks. The former is solid track with a lovely intro. The lyrical content is alike to something from A Matter Of Life And Death, with a war related subject. It's a good track, not a classic, but I quite like it. Coming Home is one of the songs that Maiden do very well, those that start dark and slowly, picking up pace as they go. The chorus to this track is brilliant, well suited for live performance in my opinion. A really good track, very catchy.

The next three tracks are The Alchemist, Isle of Avalon, and Starblind. All of them are the tracks that are not designed to be hits, rather they are meant to fill the album while still being solid tracks. These manage that task well. I particularly like Starblind, it's my favourite of the three at the moment.

After that the next two tracks are The Talisman and The Man Who Would Be King. The Talisman starts slowly with a lovely guitar part creating a melody to work in conjunction with the vocals. After a couple of minutes the heavier riff begins and the song picks up speed. I have to admit that the chorus gets a little repetitive after a while, which you notice because it's a very short line. It's a pretty solid track, a good song. The Man Who Would Be King is another track that is up there with the best tracks of the album. Like so many others on this album it starts with a lovely intro. It's a bit of a weird song, but it's especially good towards the end.

The album ends with an 11 minute epic called When The Wild Wind Blows. It is, for me, hands down the best track on the album. It takes a ballad like form, with a lyrical content of an impending disaster. The lyrics fit in beautifully with the guitar to form a fantastic song. It's definitely one of the best tracks of it's type Iron Maiden have written, a great way to bring the album to a close.

Overall it's a fantastic album, it's a little different to what they usually produce, but it's still a brilliant piece of work. My top three tracks of the album have to be (in order of appearance): Satellite 15..... The Final Frontier, El Dorado, and When The Wild Wind Blows. If I had to give it a rating I'd have to say it hovers around the 9/10 mark. It's one of their best albums, but it's not quite on the same level as The Number of the Beast, but then that's not really a fair criticism because I think that it's nigh impossible to match that album. So in my opinion this album is one of the best I've heard in a long time, certainly the best so far this year.

Thanks for reading, as usual leave a comment if you want.

Cheers,

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Sonisphere: After

Well I'm back, I'm barely awake, but I'm here to give my thoughts on Sonisphere UK 2010. I arrived on the Thursday, as I had chosen early entry as opposed to arriving on the friday, which turned out to be a good thing as the campsite was much quieter and it mean that those of us in our group could get a good spot to pitch our tents. As there were no bands on the Thursday and none on the Friday until 5pm, we sat in our tent circle and spent a little while exploring the festival grounds. Ok, but what about music? Well here's my report:

Friday:

The first band I saw on the Friday was Delain, in fact this was the first act of the festival. The genre of this band was had a sort of symphonic rock/metal feel to it, similar to H.I.M., I thought they were ok, a couple of their songs were quite good. The next band I saw was Turisas, they are classified as battle metal, and perform dressed as war painted warriors. I really enjoyed their set, they got the crowd moving and their music was great, I loved the presence of an accordian in their band, I think I have a soft spot for rock and metal bands that have accordians, I'm not sure why. After Turisas was Europe. I was somewhat surprised by their set, as I didn't know their music very well. I quite enjoyed it, but the last track was the best, as it was the track I, and doubtlessly a lot of the crowd had been waiting for: The Final Countdown was awesome, it had the audience leaping into the air and was a great end to their set. The next act was Gary Numan. His set was just awesome, again I didn't know his music but I enjoyed it all the same. The final act I saw on the Friday was Alice Cooper, Friday's headline act. He put on a great show, he performed his Theatre of Death performance where he dies several times whilst delivering all the hits of his career. He started and finished with School's Out, it really was a great gig.

Saturday:

I saw many acts on the Saturday, so I shall only describe a few in detail. I thought Anthrax were brilliant, they were really tight musically and seemed on even better form than at the Big Four Show at a European Sonisphere that was broadcast in cinemas. Joey Belladonna showed his skill as a frontman once again. One of my favourite acts of the day was Skunk Anansie. This band were the first metal band I ever listened to and I never expected that I would see them live until they reformed last year. At Sonisphere they played for about 45 minutes, with Skin the lead singer performing with such skill and energy. It was a truly awesome performance. The headline act of the Saturday was Rammstein. Their stageing consisted of 200 tonnes of stuff that had to be hauled in several lorries. They put on a show of staggering pyrotechnics that you could feel on your face even far from the front row. The frontman of Rammstein- Till Lindemann, captivated the audience and his talent was obvious. The music was faultless and the show was entertaining to say the least.

Sunday:

Sunday began with me catching the last half of Karnivool's set. I hadn't heard them before, but I had heard many good things about their music, it turns out that the rumours were correct, they were pretty good. I also saw The Fab Beatles, a Beatles tribute as you might expect, they were pretty good, I quite liked it when they played I'm Fine and then changed into Run to the Hills half way through. Another band I saw on Sunday was Skindred, and they were utterly brilliant. Their frontman Benjy has such a stage presence and they are fantastic. I predict that they will make it big as a live act in the future. Later on it was time for the thrash gods Slayer, and they did not dissapoint, their set, while short, was brilliant. With Tom Araya delivering great vocals and Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, and Dave Lombardo playing to an excellent standard the gig was great. Later on that day I got to see Alice in Chains, one of my favourite bands, and they did not dissapoint. This was a band that I had been hoping would be announced for Sonisphere this year as they played last year when I wasn't there, so I was very pleased when they were announced. They played a fair bit from their latest album with songs like Check My Brain and Your Decision, all in all a really good performance. I saw many other bands that day that are worth a mention: Iggy and the Stooges, Pendulum and Converge as well as others. But now the matter of Sunday's headline act must be addressed. Yes, Iron Maiden played brought Sonisphere UK 2010 to a close. Their stageing was a futuristic space set with a starry background. They played a lot of tracks from their last few albums, so while a few of the classics were missed, for example Can I Play With Madness, The Trooper, Aces High, 2 Minutes to Midnight and Run to the Hills, they did play a lot of awesome tracks that they wouldn't normally play, for instance: These Colours Don't Run, The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg, Dance of Death, Ghost of The Navigator, Brave New World and many others. It was a fantastic gig, with all members playing to the best of their ability (including Eddie the eight foot tall mascot at one point), I throughly enjoyed it, but then they are my favourite band, so I'm a little biased.

So there you have it, my review of Sonisphere UK 2010. I have tried to mention most of the bands I saw, but I have only scratched the surface of what went on, I haven't mentioned any of the banter we had in our tent circle at all. But I leave you with a quote from Bruce Dickinson, which I think sums up the whole experience:

"SCREAM FOR ME KNEBWORTH!"

Cheers,

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Urban Folk Quartet: Review

Hello all and welcome to yet another edition of Malfunctioning Musical Madness. I'm now going to stop talking like a gameshow host, and get on with the topic in hand. Today's blog entry is a review of the performance of the band Urban Folk Quartet, who I had the pleasure of going to see last night.
Urban Folk Quartet (UFQ) are a folk band (duh) made up of four musicians:

• Frank Moon (Oud, Guitar, Percussion, Vocals)
• Tom Chapman (Percussion, Vocals)
• Joe Broughton (Fiddle, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals)
• Paloma Trigas (Fiddle, Vocals)

They play a mixture of music that encompasses traditional folk sounds, Middle Eastern music, and Latin American music. This is all incorporated seamlessly into their songs, and the result is fantastic. All four are very talented musicians, Joe is both a brilliant fiddle player but a very good guitarist. Paloma is a fantastic fiddle player, and her vocals were great. Frank Moon plays the Oud, and interesting middle eastern instrument with a lovely sound that was demonstrated on a song they played in which he took the lead. Finally Tom Chapman, the percussionist who uses an interesting set of percussive instruments including a cajon, his talent for percussion was very high and his vocal appearance on one song was very good.

The performance was fantastic, all members looked like they were having a good time, and the audience did too. Having only heard about the band at the beginning of the week, I'm glad I took a chance and went to see them. As a band they function faultlessly, without a wrong note. They are one of my favourite folk acts about, and I thoroughly recommend them.

Anyway that's it from me for now, I don't know when the next entry will be, but I'll try and submit one soon.

Thanks,

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