Simone Appolloni's Album Reviews
Yes, it's true, by the year 2025 hardcore music is more popular than metal. So what? When did Turnstile was ever "hardcore" in the first place? Why their 2025 album Never Enough starts with what sounds like New Age/Ambient synth pads with extremely Auto-tuned vocals like Sleep Token? So much for hardcore. By now, the band's style has become so abruptly charts-oriented that now they may as well erase all guitar/bass from their recordings. Apart of this pseudo-mystic The Smashing Pumpkins imitation, the rest of the album is devoted to off-beat Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes-like Pop Punk ("Sole", "Sunshower"), clean, ultra-chorus guitar with high-tempo beats as if everyone pretended The Smiths never existed ("I Care", save for the vocal lines), nods to Ska Punk ("Dreaming", synth brass included) and more pseudo-slam breakdowns so basic even old Rage Against the Machine were on another level ("Dull"). And why many solo synth pads take up a full half of the songs themselves? Is this band "punk" or "shoegaze"? And why, when Hundredth do this exact same stuff, no one notices?
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2025's Insatiable contains more concise, instrumental, digital synth/Doom Metal drones with more focused on "otherwordly" distortion than care in arrangements or concept.
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USA pianist George Winston was not only a pivotal musical act in the branding of "New Age" music, but also a key figure in understanding instrumental, non-communicative 2000's music. Died in 2023, aged 74, after dying of the fourth, non-declared cancer of which he suffered, he spent years in an alleged musical sabbatical, before submitting a demo to the owner of Windham Hill Records label: despite its alleged un-commercial nature, 1980's Autumn became a hit, enough to become Platinum disc and starting the instrumental New Age piano phenomenon, of which Winston was not the first (Keith Jarrett's The Köln Concert may be a pioneer), but surely was the most noticeable name of the niche.
Despite its apparently inoffensive nature, the material (one of the few albums without any covers, only original stuff) carries a depressive, mournful and pessimistic quality in its lack of lyrics, very abstract titles revolving over visual, naturalistic elements that carry a deeper, spiritual meaning (key term: "Mono no aware") and non-fixed rhyhtms. Most of the cuts show a prevalent melodic, Pop-like direction, despite the technical, dual-hand arrangements reminiscent of certain forms of Jazz/Fusion (Vince Guaraldi and Bill Evans immediately come to mind) and a few nods to neo-Romantic counterpoint and minor-harmonic leads (most noticeably at the beginning of "Woods"). "Colors / Dance" becomes pretty recognizable, despite its long duration and free-form structure, due to the repetition of grievous, F#-minor/A-major chording and repetitive rhythmic patterns and bass shifts. Tons of The Sims 1-like moods here.
Not exactly tonal music (plenty of suspended 2/4 chord voicings, occasional highly dissonant sequences, as on "Longing / Love" or the pentatonic scale runs on "Moon") but far too peaceful and melodic to be considered contemporary-classical, this is music that defies easy categorizations, because it's a synthesis of centuries of piano study and playing, where no macro-genre truly prevails. Even its concept and alleged themes are very contradictory, exactly as the cover artwork, showing a sky apparently serene, but with dire, heavy rainstorm far in the distance. Probably not the best of its kind, but beautiful on its own, despite the somehow poor piano production.
Highlights: "Color / Dance", "Longing / Love", "Moon".
Despite its apparently inoffensive nature, the material (one of the few albums without any covers, only original stuff) carries a depressive, mournful and pessimistic quality in its lack of lyrics, very abstract titles revolving over visual, naturalistic elements that carry a deeper, spiritual meaning (key term: "Mono no aware") and non-fixed rhyhtms. Most of the cuts show a prevalent melodic, Pop-like direction, despite the technical, dual-hand arrangements reminiscent of certain forms of Jazz/Fusion (Vince Guaraldi and Bill Evans immediately come to mind) and a few nods to neo-Romantic counterpoint and minor-harmonic leads (most noticeably at the beginning of "Woods"). "Colors / Dance" becomes pretty recognizable, despite its long duration and free-form structure, due to the repetition of grievous, F#-minor/A-major chording and repetitive rhythmic patterns and bass shifts. Tons of The Sims 1-like moods here.
Not exactly tonal music (plenty of suspended 2/4 chord voicings, occasional highly dissonant sequences, as on "Longing / Love" or the pentatonic scale runs on "Moon") but far too peaceful and melodic to be considered contemporary-classical, this is music that defies easy categorizations, because it's a synthesis of centuries of piano study and playing, where no macro-genre truly prevails. Even its concept and alleged themes are very contradictory, exactly as the cover artwork, showing a sky apparently serene, but with dire, heavy rainstorm far in the distance. Probably not the best of its kind, but beautiful on its own, despite the somehow poor piano production.
Highlights: "Color / Dance", "Longing / Love", "Moon".
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If there’s one band that’s extremely undervalued, ignored or plain insulted when it comes to trace back the history of Heavy Metal (extreme or not), that’s Venom. Highlighted by Conrad Lant’s booming, distorted bass playing and the band’s blitzkrieg, catacomb-like Thrash Metal approach derived from Deep Purple and Motörhead, their 1981 debut, Welcome to Hell, was not a smashing success, and in contemporary Hard Rock/Heavy Metal circles, the band was still ridiculed for their garage-like aesthetic, but granted their first live exhibitions around UK. For its follower, the band was given more time for recording (a week), and the album was released in 1982 with a successful tour in Europe that was cancelled halfway there due to issues with recording equipment withheld by the U.S. Custom after a few incendiary (literally, as stage pyrotechnics brought damage to the venue) shows in USA at the Island Paramount Theater, where then unknown Metallica opened the set.
Opening with an abrasive buzzing sound (allegedly an electric chainsaw used on steel plates), the title track unleashes an even faster Thrash Metal palm-muted stampede with modal melodies in the chorus and Lant’s clearer rock-out half-spoken rants. The two-chord chug of “To Hell and Back”, “Leave Me in Hell” and “Heaven’s on Fire” sound more effective and thrashing than anything recorded in USA for the following 8 years in metal, while “Buried Alive” uses a ballad-like setting with melancholic riffs and intro fueled with sadness for the dead (“We are brought forth unto this world with nothing / And with nothing we depart / So I comment this body to the ground / With loving remembrance”) to unleash an anti-climatic, opposite-tended revenge over a premature burial (“My bones are decayed, my flesh it doth rot / I'm lying in silk, take the lid off this box / My lungs gasp for air, my eyes scream for sight / I promise the rise of my body this night”) that continues with the banging post-Saxon up-tempo stomp of “Raise the Dead”).
Even more cruel riffs and raging vocals are used on the two outtakes “Acid Queen” and “Bloodlust”, while minimal, energetic double-bass arrangements propel the sex-with-teacher rant of “Teacher’s Pet” (“Pulled me down towards her mound / Teacher tasted sweet / Sixty-nine - I don't mean lines / This was teachers treat / Played hide and seek with teachers mouth / Her lips were warm and wet / Now today I've had my way / And teacher won't forget”: the only useless track is the final snippet that anticipates their next album. All killer, no filler: Black Metal proves that early Venom were, are and will always be the only historic Thrash Metal band worth listening ever.
Highlights: “Black Metal”, “Buried Alive”, “Teacher’s Pet”.
Opening with an abrasive buzzing sound (allegedly an electric chainsaw used on steel plates), the title track unleashes an even faster Thrash Metal palm-muted stampede with modal melodies in the chorus and Lant’s clearer rock-out half-spoken rants. The two-chord chug of “To Hell and Back”, “Leave Me in Hell” and “Heaven’s on Fire” sound more effective and thrashing than anything recorded in USA for the following 8 years in metal, while “Buried Alive” uses a ballad-like setting with melancholic riffs and intro fueled with sadness for the dead (“We are brought forth unto this world with nothing / And with nothing we depart / So I comment this body to the ground / With loving remembrance”) to unleash an anti-climatic, opposite-tended revenge over a premature burial (“My bones are decayed, my flesh it doth rot / I'm lying in silk, take the lid off this box / My lungs gasp for air, my eyes scream for sight / I promise the rise of my body this night”) that continues with the banging post-Saxon up-tempo stomp of “Raise the Dead”).
Even more cruel riffs and raging vocals are used on the two outtakes “Acid Queen” and “Bloodlust”, while minimal, energetic double-bass arrangements propel the sex-with-teacher rant of “Teacher’s Pet” (“Pulled me down towards her mound / Teacher tasted sweet / Sixty-nine - I don't mean lines / This was teachers treat / Played hide and seek with teachers mouth / Her lips were warm and wet / Now today I've had my way / And teacher won't forget”: the only useless track is the final snippet that anticipates their next album. All killer, no filler: Black Metal proves that early Venom were, are and will always be the only historic Thrash Metal band worth listening ever.
Highlights: “Black Metal”, “Buried Alive”, “Teacher’s Pet”.
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1992's Nerve Net contains lengthy nods to contemporary Acid House ("Fractal Zoom"), Funk with sampled horns ("Wire Shock"), Hip Hop-like warped vocals and other disinterested, dancefloor-minded filler.
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Long before being known as the creator of "Ambient" music and a solo artist devoted to technology, Brian Peter George Eno had been keyboardist/effect wizard for Roxy Music, which he left in 1973 because he couldn't bring his contributions to the band due to Ferry's musical direction. As a result, he went solo, releasing (No Pussyfooting), in collaboration with King Crimson's Robert Fripp, while he was still in Roxy Music. His proper solo debut, 1974's Here Come the Warm Jets, was actually recorded with a sling of guest performers, including Fripp himself, members of Roxy Music and renowned session musicians like Chris Speeding and Busta Jones. According to Eno, musicians were directed to play using gestures, rather than standard musical notation
The resulting album is obviously reminiscent of Roxy Music, but with a few quirk elements of its own. "Needles in the Camel's Eye" starts things off on a joyous, energetic tone with three-chord wonder predating Ramones-like Pop Punk with multi-tracked half-shouted vocals and dissonant inserts, "The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch" (what an unhappy senseless title) has prominent use of phaser and harmonic generator during its barely-recognizable solo guitar section, and
"Cindy Tells Me" is a quieter ballad in pure British slapstick style. Most of the other cuts feature similarly repetitive riffing with far more "weird-sounding" instrumentation, rather than proper Pop hooks: of these, "Driving Me Backwards" comes out spooky, thanks to its piano droning and sadistic vocals.
Devoid of "songs", rather based on drones with sound effects, the album doesn't sound as experimental in terms of sonic engineering, showing its nature as a 70's post-psichedelia work with weak production, which doesn't help making any of these "experiments" sound more gripping or something more convincing than mere parody of Funk ("Blank Frank") or Country/honky tonk slide guitar ("Some of Them Are Old"). Not enough weird and with most of its melodic qualities penalized by unconventional artistic direction: a mixed bag that still sounds more listenable than most of the stuff recorded by Roxy Music during their activity.
Highlights: "Needles in the Camel's Eye", "Here Come the Warm Jets".
The resulting album is obviously reminiscent of Roxy Music, but with a few quirk elements of its own. "Needles in the Camel's Eye" starts things off on a joyous, energetic tone with three-chord wonder predating Ramones-like Pop Punk with multi-tracked half-shouted vocals and dissonant inserts, "The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch" (what an unhappy senseless title) has prominent use of phaser and harmonic generator during its barely-recognizable solo guitar section, and
"Cindy Tells Me" is a quieter ballad in pure British slapstick style. Most of the other cuts feature similarly repetitive riffing with far more "weird-sounding" instrumentation, rather than proper Pop hooks: of these, "Driving Me Backwards" comes out spooky, thanks to its piano droning and sadistic vocals.
Devoid of "songs", rather based on drones with sound effects, the album doesn't sound as experimental in terms of sonic engineering, showing its nature as a 70's post-psichedelia work with weak production, which doesn't help making any of these "experiments" sound more gripping or something more convincing than mere parody of Funk ("Blank Frank") or Country/honky tonk slide guitar ("Some of Them Are Old"). Not enough weird and with most of its melodic qualities penalized by unconventional artistic direction: a mixed bag that still sounds more listenable than most of the stuff recorded by Roxy Music during their activity.
Highlights: "Needles in the Camel's Eye", "Here Come the Warm Jets".
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2021's Surface Sounds is a replica of their past works.
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