Album Openers

The opening song of an album is more important than you might think. It's the first thing you hear when you stick it on the stereo and it often decides whether someone will listen to the rest. Essentially it's got to hook the listener and get them to leave the album on. But what makes a good opening track? Here's a list of a few songs that I think work really well as album openers and I'll explain why in each case.

Kill the Rhythm - Gallows

The crushing first song from their debut album Orchestra of Wolves, Kill the Rhythm is fast paced and fierce. The listener is immediately drawn into the catchy song and can't help listening to the rest of the album. It's easily one of the best songs on the album and is my second favourite Gallows song, after London is the Reason from their 2009 album Grey Britain. Recently Frank Turner, who had fronted the band for both their albums, announced that he was leaving the band. He has since been replaced with ex-Alexisonfire singer Wade MacNeil. A third album is in the works and their latest Twitter post says:

"Drums and guitars for the new songs are tracked and sounding huge!"

I'm really looking forward to the new album and to see what the new singer produces. They've released one track with their new singer (available from www.gallows.co.uk) called True Colours, and it's rather good but at only 37 seconds long it's way too short. Whenever they next hit the UK I'll be there, I've seen them twice already (the most recent being Sonisphere 2011, the day after Frank's announcement of his imminent departure) and they were fantastic.

Since We've Been Wrong - The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta are renowned for their individual brand of music full of mesmerising intricacies and complex melodies. One result of this however is that their music isn't all that popular in the mainstream musical community, and I think that this is because people find it hard to connect with it. The good thing about Since We've Been Wrong, the opening song of their latest work Octahedron is that although it has many of the features typical of the band, it has a consistent vocal part that reappears throughout. This repeated chorus has the effect of bridging the gap and as a result I think Octahedron would be a good album to start with for anyone looking to get into The Mars Volta. Another element of the song that I like is a piano trill which has a nice effect.

Aces High - Iron Maiden

If this isn't a classic then nothing is. Having stood the test of time Aces High remains popular today with millions of people. This fast paced, action packed song is the first track from the 1984 album Powerslave which also contains the famous Maiden songs: 2 Minutes to Midnight and Powerslave. Centring on the Battle of Britain and the pilots flying the Supermarine Spitfire planes the song makes you feel like you're in the cockpit as the music twists and turns like a plane in a dogfight. For years the band opened with this song, only changing it recently for their tours where they're playing more songs from recent years. I predict however that it'll return to their performance at its rightful place: the first song on the setlist.

New Born - Muse

Even if you don't know Muse at all you may well have heard this song. The first track of their 2001 album Origin of Symmetry, it has appeared on television advertisements in the UK at least. The riff to this song is fantastic, and Matt Bellamy's vocals are great as usual. Like Aces High it's fast paced, a quality I think helps create a good album opener. The band played the album, Origin of Symmetry all the way through at their shows at Reading and Leeds Festival 2011 and I've heard it was a fantastic gig (sadly I couldn't be there). I prefer this, their second album, and Absolution, their third, to their newer material as it's less produced. I feel their current genre, especially their latest release, The Resistance, has too many effects and that this obscures the music.

One More Time With Feeling - Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly

The opening song from his debut album Get Cape's One More Time With Feeling is a masterpiece. Featuring the picked guitar melody technique that Sam Duckworth (the man behind Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly) is so good. It's a short song like most of the rest on the album, but it's a really lovely piece. The lyrics are thoughtful and make the listener think. This is true throughout the album. Overall the album is my favourite of Get Cape's releases.

Duckworth has also released an album under his real name which came out at the end of August. I quite liked it, it's has many parallels with the work on The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager, the album that One More Time With Feeling features on. You can read my review of it here: http://malfunctioning-musical-madness.blogspot.com/2011/09/mannequin-review.html

Enter Sandman - Metallica

This is a really interesting choice of album opener. It works very well, its fast, powerful and extremely catchy. It's debatably the band's best known song. However I think that's a problem. An album opener should be a hook, but having the album's main hit right at the start is risky. It means that the rest of the piece may not live up to the opening track. For me this isn't an issue with this particular album because it isn't my favourite song. My album highlight (and in fact my favourite Metallica song full stop) is the eighth track (out of twelve) on the album: Nothing Else Matters. Enter Sandman has a fantastic riff and a chorus that demands crowds' to sing along with no regard for the condition of their vocal chords. A really good song.

So there you have it, a selection of my favourite album openers. Out of that list I'd say Aces High is the best at introducing the album. In my humble opinion it's the best album opener of all time. A good album opener is important and if a band gets it wrong they can lose a lot of potential fans that won't listen to the rest of the piece. Musicians, take not,

Sonisphere 2011: Review

A weekend packed to the brim with music of many genres and calibres, Sonisphere 2011 brought the crowds what they wanted. Taking place in the historic grounds of Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire where the likes of Led Zeppelin have played in previous years, this year's festival was somewhat bigger than last years with all three days selling out. Headlining this year were Metallica (and the rest of The Big Four), Biffy Clyro, and Slipknot. Bands appeared across five stages; Apollo and Saturn, the main and second stages respectively, Bohemia, Red Bull, and Jagermeister stages. Here's a day by day breakdown of the bands I saw.

Friday

The first band I saw on Friday were called Japanese Voyeurs. I left after three or four songs. Playing in the Bohemia tent, the third stage as it were, they were too loud and lacked creativity in my eyes. The singer was obviously a Skunk Anansie fan because she tried to emanate Skin's, the Skunk Anansie frontwoman's, style of soft verses that immediately launch into crushing chorus vocals. It didn't work. So I left them and caught the end of the set of Hammer of the Gods who were very good. I wouldn't deem them to be the most creative band in the world, but they were entertaining and the crowd loved them.

I then returned to Bohemia to catch one of the best performances of the festival. Lower Than Atlantis demonstrated their talent for raw hardcore music and were everything I hoped them to be. During one of the songs the crowd were urged to sit down and then jump up, a move probably borrowed from Slipknot. As it is LTA were masters of working the crowd and provided a hugely entertaining set.

Later on I saw Firewind, again in the Bohemia tent, on whom opinion in our group was divided. I personally found them boring. The constant shredded melodic solos wore thin after a song or two and I was left underwhelmed by the seeming lack of creativity from such a famous band. However, as I said, many in our group liked them, the crowd certainly appeared to.

At around 7 in the evening I went to see a band called Black Breath who I'd heard a lot about but had never listened to. Playing on the Jagermeister stage, formed from an open truck, they were crushing. The music was so powerful that it was like an assault on your mind. I was one row from the front and I could feel the band's ferocity coursing through my veins. A truly fantastic set and a highlight of the festival.

I then went to get a good spot for Metallica. I'd not gone to see any of the other Big Four bands (Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer) since I'd already seen two of them and the one I hadn't seen (Megadeth) I had no interest in seeing since I'd heard they are a weak band live. Anyway, Metallica emerged onstage beginning with Kill 'Em All, a track from the album of the same name released in 1983. Previously I hadn't liked the album. I'd thought that the time changes made it difficult to get into. However I listened to it again yesterday and have changed my mind. Metallica's set was fantastic. A few rarities were thrown in including Welcome Home (Sanitarium) which was great. For me the setlist was a little disappointing because it didn't include Nothing Else Matters which until recently had been a staple for the band akin to Iron Maiden's Fear of the Dark. Overall it was a great performance made better when members of the other Big Four bands came onstage and played Diamond Head's Am I Evil? like they have done at all the Big Four shows. The difference between Sonisphere UK and the other Sonispheres where The Big Four played was that at our festival a member of Diamond Head, Brian Tatler, who had written the song played as well. A truly phenomenal gig which I enjoyed immensely.

By Alberto Cabello from Vitoria Gasteiz (James Hetfield (Metallica)) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53477761@N08/4936122349/


Saturday

Late Saturday morning I sat down and watched Richard Cheese and Lounge Against The Machine, a group that plays jazz versions of various songs. Their set included covers of Nine Inch Nails and Pink Floyd, but the highlight has to be their cover of Slipknot's People=Shit which was in such contrast to the original song that it belied belief. It was a nice change to have some jazz amongst the metal, it changed the rhythm of the event somewhat which worked well. Last year on the Sunday The Fab Beatles played who, as you'd expect, were somewhat different to the other bands playing at Sonisphere 2010.

Next up were Architects followed by Gallows. Having seen Gallows before back in December 2009 and being blown away I was expecting a great show. I wasn't disappointed at all by their performance. My favourite part was when they played London Is The Reason, which is among my favourite of their tracks. What made it a little more unique was that it was renamed to match the location. They've done this before on their current tour. So this time the lyrics, instead of including the phrase "London is the reason,", were "Knebworth is the reason". However I still left their set downhearted since their singer, Frank Carter, confirmed what I'd heard the night before: he is leaving Gallows at the end of this tour. In my opinion Gallows will never be the same without Frank's raw vocal strength, but time will tell.

At 3 in the afternoon Bad Religion emerged onto the Apollo stage to deliver a great set of their brilliant pop punk anthems. 21st Century Digital Boy was the best moment of their set but the absence of Incomplete was a shame. A problem with their set was that the singer's mic was too quiet. At the beginning I couldn't really hear him at all, and this wasn't fully rectified. Other bands also suffered from parts being too loud or quiet across the weekend.

Immediately afterwards I saw Sum 41 who were boring. I was surprised. In fact the best part of their set was the few minutes they spent playing bits of Metallica songs. However later the second stage headliner came on and really made an impression. Tool-esque prog rockers The Mars Volta were underwhelming for the first 20 minutes of their 1 hour 15 minute set, but after that they really got going. Playing some new songs before embarking on a tour of various classics. They were mind-bogglingly good and their singer was fascinating to watch. At one point he started to climb underneath the staging before wrecking a kettle and trying to fit into a box. The set was fantastic, definitely one of my top five performances of the weekend.

Then it was time for the day's headliner: Biffy Clyro. Having heard only heard one or two Biffy Clyro songs before I went I was expecting to enjoy their set only somewhat. I was wrong. They were brilliant. When they were originally announced the internet was on fire with so many people saying they weren't headliner material, since they hadn't headlined anywhere before. I think it's safe to say those people were proved wrong on Saturday 9th July 2011. Biffy looked like they'd been headlining festivals for years. And so ended the Saturday's music for me.

Sunday

Around midday I watched House of Pain on the second stage. Their set was ok they suffered from what all one hit wonders suffer from. The crowd were only their for one song. Predictably that one song was played last. Last year's Sonisphere UK booked Europe who were the same with their hit The Final Countdown. When House of Pain finally started Jump Around the crowd when mad. So many people leaping into the air that early hour (relatively, it's a festival after all) was quite a sight.

Later on Mastodon took to the mainstage. One of the bands I'd been looking forward to the whole weekend did not disappoint. Playing a greatest hit set this time meant it was quite a different show from when I saw them in Bristol in 2010 when they played all of 2009's Crack The Skye. If I'm being honest I enjoyed the latter more, but their performance at Sonisphere was still fantastic. I love the distinctive hum overtone they add to their pieces, it's something unique to them. They didn't play The Last Baron (the last track of Crack The Skye) but they played lots of other great songs so I wasn't all that annoyed.

The next act on the main stage were Motorhead. For such an old experienced band I was expecting to enjoy a great set of classic rock. Disappointed isn't a strong enough word. Lemmy was drunk, the songs were monotonous and impossible to tell apart, and Ace of Spades was boring. I came away feeling I'd wasted an hour of my life.

Just after 7 o'clock in the evening Alestorm took to the Bohemia stage and began with Shipwrecked, a song from their new album Back Through Time. They were fantastic. It was hit after hit. They even played Nancy The Tavern Wench which is something of a rarity. Barriers were set up to stop any more people entering the already packed tent. After the gig the crowd leaving Bohemia took up the chant of "Alestorm. Alestorm. Alestorm" an en masse we descended upon the space in front of the second stage ready for Bill Bailey.

Playing a greatest hits set that included the BBC News Rave, Das Hokey Kokey, and his Love Ballad, Bill Bailey was great. He also played a Rammstein-esque rendition of Scarborough Fair. The most surprising thing was that there actually was a mosh pit, and a circle pit, to the comedy act. The gig also broke the world record for largest comedy audience.

Finally Slipknot walked out onto the mainstage to enthrall the crowd. The performance was all about celebrating the life of their bassist, the late Paul Gray (right). All wearing orange jumpsuits and masks it was quite a sight, and a great gig. At one point one of the members, I forget which one, crowdsurfed all the way to the sounddesk, quite a distance. He then climbed onto the roof and then leapt off into the crowd during the next song. The band played classics like Heretic Anthem and People=Shit, the same song that Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine had covered the previous day. Towards the end of their set they asked the entire crowd to sit down, before commanding them to "Stand the fuck up", the crowd interaction move that I mentioned earlier when talking about Lower than Atlantis. I was left stunned after the end of the gig, craving more. They were, and still are, fighting Metallica for my favourite performance of the festival.
By bill from jersey city (Slipknot, Nassau Coliseum, 8.06) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/72935807@N00/2744748856/

So there we have it; Sonisphere Knebworth 2011. I'll definitely be there next year. Tool are heavily rumoured to be headlining, which would be reason enough for me to go. They're top of my list of bands to see, followed by Flogging Molly (whom I have tickets to see in November). Overall it was a great weekend packed with talented bands.

Sonisphere 2011: Before

It's that time of year again! Sonisphere 2011 is this weekend and I'm rather exited. In this post I'll discuss the bands I'm most looking forward to and why. Then after the festival there'll be a post where I review the post.

The UK stop of the Sonisphere 2011 tour is at Knebworth House in Hertforshire from 8-10th July with an option to get there the day before (the Thursday). Last year I bought an early entry ticket, and I've done the same thing this year. It's not that much more, and it's really worth it. It allows you to ensure a good camping spot and time to explore the festival grounds whilst there aren't many people around. Anyway, the festival itself. Here's the day by day breakdown of what I think will be the highlights.

Friday

The Big Four are playing the first day of Sonisphere UK, their first time ever appearing in Britain on the same stage. It's a historic event for the UK sector of the world of metal and I'm very much looking forward to it. However I won't be seeing all of the bands, or rather I'll miss bits. For instance I'll miss a lot of the first of the Big Four, Anthrax's, set so that I can go and see Lower Than Atlantis on a different stage. I saw Anthrax last year so it's not too much of a problem for me, but I'm sure I'll enjoy the part of their set I see. Joey Belladonna is a phenomenal frontman and really injects energy into an already energetic band. Next up is Megadeth. I haven't seen them live before, but I've heard that they are (allegedly) not that good a live act. Furthermore I saw them in the Big Four film (filmed at the first Big Four show in Sofia, Bulgaria last year) and they didn't meet expectations. However I'll reserve judgement. After Megadeth are Slayer, who I've also seen and love. They clash with Protest the Hero, who I'm yet to see, so I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do yet. Slayer are an ace live act but I really like Protest the Hero, their Mathcore genre with its high pitched melodies works well. The headline act, Metallica, should be great. I really like their studio work and I haven't yet seen them live. My only concern is that they won't play Nothing Else Matters, my favourite song of theirs, even though it's usually a staple of their live shows; they haven't been playing it much of late.

Saturday

There are two bands that stand out for me from Saturday's lineup, and they are entirely different. The first band is Gallows, whose studio work is great and whose live performance is mind blowing. Their stage presence is like nothing else. For me they're the second best UK live act in existence, second only to Iron Maiden. I really hope they play my favourite song from their two albums, Kill the Rhythm; it's not always on their setlist so I won't be too disappointed if they don't. The other act is The Mars Volta. Their prog-heavy music is full of interesting interludes and effects and I love them. I thoroughly recommend Octahedron, my favourite album from what I've listened to of their discography, it's fantastic. I'm really looking forward to seeing how different their live show is; apparently a large part of their set is improvised, something that few bands do nowadays.

Sunday

Mastodon play the last day of the festival and will be fantastic. There's no question about it. I saw them back in February 2010 and I still can't believe how good they are. They played Crack the Skye, 2009's critically acclaimed album, from start to finish before returning for an encore of crushing classics. Truly they are a band to be reckoned with. Bill Bailey's worth a mention, he's one of the many comedy acts at the festival (another is Steve-O), however the difference with this act is that he's headlining the second stage. According to him he's preparing a special metal-themed set to include Rammstein/Kraftwerk inspired music as well as some old favourites. By "old favourites" I very much hope he means that he'll play his love ballad which I encourage all of you to search for, it's great. Finally the headline act, Slipknot, should be amazing. Their album Iowa is great and from what I've heard of their performances from the Sonisphere's that have already gone so far this year they shouldn't disappoint.

So that's my festival lined up. I couldn't possibly include all the bands I'm looking forward to, those are just some of the highlights. I'll be back after the festival to post a review of the event. If you want you can check out last year's Sonisphere articles here: Sonisphere 2010: Before and here: Sonisphere 2010: After.

What the (Near) Future Holds

The year of 2011 looks to be a good one for music; there are many albums I'm anticipating as well as various events I look to attend. Whatever the state of the music industry I maintain that album releases still retain their status as important milestones for bands and should be respected as such. So what does the future hold for this year at least?

Mastodon:

Progressive metallers Mastodon are due to release their fifth studio album this year. The followup to their critically acclaimed Crack The Sky, this next work is to be entitled The Hunter. There's much interest into what kind of sound to expect from the new album since its predecessor was so much more progressive than their previous work. According to their drummer, Brann Dailor, it's going to be "Faster, heavier, crazier". Bill Kelliher, guitarist for the band says: "It's a good representation of where we are," and that there's "A lot of short bursts of energy going on". This suggests that in this album, while exploring new material, the band are returning to the likes of Leviathan and Blood Mountain, whose songs were generally shorter than their counterparts on Crack The Skye. The Hunter will have its work cut out if it's to match the reception that 2009's album received. Mastodon will be playing this year's Sonisphere UK (among other Sonispheres across Europe), I'll be sure to mention them in this year's "Sonisphere: Review" post. There should be a review of the album on this blog as soon as I get hold of a copy. So far there isn't a release date for it yet, but it should be out by the end of the year. Stay tuned.

Paramore:

This band haven't been given their due credit on this blog. Paramore received much praise for their 2007 album Riot!. Full of power it was a hit and is still my favourite album from what I've listened to of their discography. They currently have three albums released as well as three EPs. Their debut All We Know Is Failing was released back in 2005. The band's latest album, Brand New Eyes is a great example of Paramore's talent for their punk genre and, while not quite to the same standard as Riot!, it is a thoroughly entertaining album. In the early weeks of 2011 (Source MTV), Paramore took some time off in order to focus on a new album. I'd anticipate that, while no formal release date has been set, if all goes well the new work should be out by the end of the year.

Sonisphere Knebworth (UK)

In terms of musical events for this year this is the one I'm most looking forward to. I won't go into vast detail about all the different bands since there'll be two posts dedicated to Sonisphere 2011, one before and one after (like last year). However I will talk for a bit about the importance of this year's festival to the world of metal. Last year, after what seems like centuries of arguments and feuds, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax, better known as The Big Four of thrash metal, shared the same stage for the first time in history at Sonisphere Bulgaria. The festival in Sofia was the setting for this historical event which culminated in the bands coming together (with the unfortunate absence of most of Slayer due to non-argumentative issues) in playing Diamond Head's Am I Evil?. This year these four bands will be coming to the UK to share a stage for the first time in this country. Other historical events are occurring at this years Soniphere Knebworth in the form of Biffy Clyro's first ever festival headline. Yes the alternative rockers have been given their first headline slot by the Sonisphere organisers, a decision that prompted much debate among the musical community with heavily polarised viewpoints shared. So all in all it looks to be a very important festival for the world of music, one I most certainly will not be missing. As I said I'll talk more about Sonisphere 2011 closer to the time when all the details have been finalised in two blog entries; one before the festival in anticipation, and one after the festival to act as a review.

Tool?

It's looking very unlikely now but I thought I'd mention it briefly anyway. Tool (who I talked about in Notable Artists... V) haven't released an album since 2006's masterpiece 10,000 Days. The gap between their last few albums seems to be usually five years, so we're due a new one any time soon. What's stopping the album is that some members of the band, particularly Maynard James Keenan, have side projects that need time and effort, for instance Keenan has been working with his other band A Perfect Circle. All we can do is wait patiently and hope that an album will be out in the next couple of years. One of the great things about Tool is that although they don't release new material very often, they have yet to release an album that isn't brilliant. I'll keep my eye out for news.


So that's 2011 for me. There are a few things I haven't included, like the fact I'm seeing Iron Maiden in August, but they may get their own blog posts in the form of reviews. Anyway that's all for now.

Thanks,

big_friendly_letters.