Lori Linstruth and Arjen Lucassen join us to talk about their latest project Guilt Machine. The album ‘On This Perfect Day’ was released in Europe on August 31st, an album of self reflective twists and turns through progressive metal sounds.

As well as Guilt Machine Arjen also talks about life after the Ayreon project and his future musical direction.

Accompanying this is Phil’s look at the progressive metal scene focusing on amongst others Mesuggah and Mastodon. A great starting guide for the uninitiated to prog metal!
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 Episode 43 - Lori and Arjen from Guilt Machine [101:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

01. MindPlague 3:39 02. Rain 4:58 03. Beast In The Cage 3:33 04. Mechantical 2:30 05. Crehate 4:21 06. Rise Above 3:37 07. No Fucking Way 2:05

Ahh, Sweden. Have they ever let us down in terms of death metal? From the moment that the intro to ‘MindPlague’ sweeps in and impacts your lugholes, you know this EP is going to be a good listen. Hailing from Gothenburg (come on, where else?), Despite are a beardy five-piece melodic death metal band. You’ve heard it all before, you say? Hold on there, because there’s more than that going on here.

On first listen, they sound like In Flames - which there’s nothing wrong with. But it’s only when you listen to the intricacies woven throughout the sonic bombast that you can fully appreciate this record. The aforementioned opening track features a mellowed middle eight in which Alex Losb‰ck’s vocals come remarkably close to those of Ozzy Osbourne, while the guitar parts of ‘Rain’ could have been lifted out of the System Of A Down textbook. Not that there’s no originality here - it’s just impressive how such different sounds are all encapsulated within the traditional death metal refrains.

The energy displayed by the band is inspiring, to say the least. ‘Rise Above’ has one of those riffs any budding axeman will instantly want to learn how to play (and will probably end up on Guitar Hero one day if fortune smiles upon these Swedes), while closer ‘No Fucking Way’ has one of those violent-yet-uniting metal choruses: ‘I’ll make you fucking pay / I’ll spit on your grave’. Lovely jubbly.
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01. Deathlike Overture (intro) 01:26 02. Esoteric 04:44 03. Rise and Decay 06:10 04. Let the Old World Burn 04:10 05. Darkness Descending 07:09 06. Seclusion 03:46 07. Misery’s Supremacy 07:10 08. Under a Pitch Black Sky 04:52 09. Linger in Doubt 05:18 10. The Legacy of the Defeated 07:21 11. Within Reach (bonus) 03:36

Melodic death metal; Sweden’s gift to world of music. No, ABBA don’t count. So entwined in the gestation and evolution of said genre is the Scandinavian country that some call it the “Gothenburg style”. In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, At the Gates, Carcass, Arch Enemy; all have marched under the banner of melodic death metal, and it is with this plentiful heritage in mind that I approach ’Esoteric’, the fourth album by Skyfire. They hail from a sparsely-populated municipality right at Sweden‘s southernmost tip called Höör, which I hope to never have to attempt to pronounce aloud. Although ‘Esoteric’ is their fourth album, the band’s approach has changed somewhat after a short hiatus, a five-year break between albums, and several lineup changes.

Despite the fact that they are generally pigeonholed as “melodic death metal”, and also that I have just spent a paragraph talking about just that, I feel the tag fails to credit the plethora of other influences present in Skyfire’s music. It’s immediately apparent that there are strong progressive and symphonic shades to this album; it features both an orchestra and a choir, which make everything seem very epic, and there is heavy use of acoustic piano. This makes a refreshing change from the majority of metal bands’ approach to keyboards, which is centred almost entirely around synth strings, the “orchestral-hit” setting, and the occasional wanky pitch-bend laden solo. Those staples are still in evidence on ‘Esoteric’, but the use of the piano really strengthens the melody, and allows it to go to places which might otherwise have been inaccessible.
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01. Like the Ore Strikes the Water 3:13 02. Fear is the Key 3:31 03. Hovding 0:39 04. Iron Will 5:01 05. Silver Into Steel 4:15 06. The Shadow Knows 5:35 07. Self Deceiver 4:49 08. Beyond Good & Evil 5:15 09. I Am the North 9:01

Grand Magus are a bit of an enigma. They’re not particularly Big, in any sense of the word; the Swedish three-piece are probably best known for the fact that frontman Janne “JB” Christoffersson sings in Spiritual Beggars with Michael Amott of Carcass and Arch Enemy. This lack of recognition clashes with the fact that they’re fucking brilliant; more on that later. Anyway, since being established in 2001 on a split 7” with, you guessed it, Spiritual Beggars, Grand Magus have released four slabs of uncompromising, balls-out heavy metal, the latest being 2008’s “Iron Will”. The title alludes to steely determination, dedication and spirit, in case you’re wondering. Not a massive boner. Metal Hammer famously raised this point with JB in an interview, to which he replied that “you should always have an erection while playing metal”. Which says a lot about Grand Magus’ music, really.

Now, generally at this point in a review, I’d be picking out tracks from the album, maybe analysing bits of them, discussing their relative merits. However, with Iron Will, there’s not actually that much point. All of the songs are pretty much the same, both in spirit and execution - and they’re all bloody fantastic.
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01. The Second Coming 1:02 02. Booze, Broads And Beelzebub 4:20 03. Wine Of Sin 4:10 04. Raven Black Cadillac 4:22 05. Life Of A Fighter 4:38 06. The Devil Walks Proudly 3:50 07. Hate This Town 3:55 08. The Boys From The East 4:47 09. Doomsday Rider 3:46 10. Let’s Hear It 4:55 11. Sharp Dressed Man 3:10 12. Bad Broad (Good Girl Gone Bad) 4:12 13. Raise Your Flag 3:00

When it comes to metal music, there’s a fine line between paying tribute and taking the piss (see: Steel Panther). ‘Booze, Broads and Beelzebub’ is the second full-length offering from Chrome Division, the side-project of Shagrath (of Dimmu Borgir), and they seem to be walking a similar tightrope. Far from the symphonic black metal stylings of the vocalist-cum-guitarist’s other band, this album mainly takes influence from the greasy biker bands of yore (Motorhead anyone?), and as such, the songs all revolve around loose women, alcohol and general sleazy livin’. The question that arises is whether or not the album does justice to such acts, or is an embarrassing cliche.

The lyrics to the title track do not work entirely in the band’s favour: ‘Come on over / We’ve got something that won’t make you sober’ is particularly suspect. To be fair, vocalist Eddie Guz barks the childish lyrics with a nice degree of conviction. The problem is that it often sounds like they’re trying to be an ironic lampoon rather than a credible rock ‘n’ roll group. ‘Raven Black Cadillac’ sounds like it was written by a satanic ZZ Top, while incidentally the legendary bearded trio’s ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ gets an up-tempo reworking itself. ‘The Boys From The East’ is undoubtedly a nod towards the Top’s ‘La Grange’ too. ‘Bad Broad (Good Girl Gone Bad)’ features a spoken-word section that isn’t quite on par with those of Axl Rose, and one may even let out a giggle when, following a rant about being messed around by a girl, the word “bitch” is added on as an afterthought.
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01. We Are the Undertakers 3:20 02. Halloween 3:43 03. Bless the Beast 3:46 04. Girls Made of Heavy Metal 3:07 05. Louder 2:48 06. Metalwar 3:45 07. Wreck of Society 4:38 08. The Bitch Is Back 3:04 09. Got the Devil in Me 4:23 10. Heavy Metal Man 3:37 11. Pain in the Ass 3:48

There are two distinct flavours of female fronted bands. Firstly are the operatic, symphonic and gothy bands where the purpose of the singer, as well as high pitched warbling, is to float around the front of the stage – making any red blooded men in the crowd dribble.

The second kind are the ones who take the fight right to their male counterparts – with just as much (if not more) confidence, power and attitude. The self styled queen of metal, Doro has been doing this for years, mixing it with the big boys – and more often than not – putting them to shame. But now, it seems she may have to fight to defend her crown at the top of the metal heap.

Hysterica are an all female metal powerhouse. Fronted by lead singer Anni De Vil [oooh you see what she did there?] they play their own brand of sleazy metal with some style. They claim to be inspired by the gods of heavy metal – namely Judas Priest.
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01. I Rule 3:49 02. Pyre of Gods 4:33 03. Rider of the Last Day 6:47 04. Follow the Blind 4:33 05. Undead Son 4:04 06. Of Time and Dust 5:55 07. From the Void 5:01 08. Convulsions 4:45 09. From the Shadows 4:19 10. Painless 4:11

Tarot will be familiar to most people as Marco Hietala’s “other” band. They have however been on the scene for quite some time, and had been together for almost 20 years by the time Marco joined Nightwish; indeed, Tarot’s debut album came out a full decade before Nightwish were even formed. However, much of this time has been spent on hiatus, and it was only the success of Hietala joining Nightwish in 2002 which led Spinefarm to commission a new Tarot album in 2003.

Anyone expecting that album, Suffer Our Pleasures, to echo the style of Century Child, Hietala’s first appearance on record with Nightwish, was in for a surprise. While the latter outfit are undoubtedly symphonic power metal, Tarot sit more comfortably in the straight-up heavy-metal vein of Grand Magus, or perhaps Corrosion of Conformity. What’s immediately evident is the rawness of the sound, with Zachary Hietala’s guitars dominating right from the start. From opening track “I Rule” he tears into a meaty selection of convincing riffs and wailing solos, and doesn’t let up until the final power-chord fades. His brother’s vocals manage to achieve a harsh edge, almost a snarl, despite remaining tuneful throughout and even reaching for the odd high-note, and this fits the overall tone of the album. You get the feeling on most of the songs that Tarot are quite angry about something, and that their bassy, growling music is some form of catharsis. It injects a vital hint of emotion into proceedings, without which the album could perhaps have started to appear formulaic.
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Check out some of our photos of Blitzkrieg headlining at the Kennyfest charity event, photos by Victoria Baker.

01. The Jackson Whites 3:29 02. Plastic Jebus 3:18 03. The Only One 3:52 04. John of Violence 3:53 05. You Are Proof That Not All Women Are Insane 2:49 06. Tim Smith 3:30 07. Low Energy Vortex 3:30 08. You Took the Sunshine From New York 3:41 09. Mazel Tov Cocktail 3:01 10. Chutzpah 5:47

Hang about. What’s a band like The Wildhearts doing on here? They’re surely too poppy for this site? Yes, it’s true that most melodies and choruses from Newcastle’s finest are so sugary they’ll rot your teeth faster than acid flavoured sherbet but anyone sufficiently clued-up knows that they’ve also offered some fantastic crushing riffage in their time. It’s this cracking combination – plus an abundance of brilliant songs – that’s made them the Brit rock legends that they are, not to mention this writer’s favourite band. Oops, let a bit of bias slip there, didn’t I? Yeah well, it’s partly my podcast too and I’m in a plugging mood.

Chutzpah is defined as gall, audacity or nerve and it’s a quality that Ginger and his frequently changing band of merry men posses in bucket loads. Frequently overlooked throughout their career in favour of the latest unit-shifting soulless dross passing for rock at the time, The Wildhearts were never afraid to stick it to “the man” and despite the seemingly countless times when they’ve allowed their own “fuck it all” attitude or infamous penchant for rock n’ roll excesses to derail them, they’ve always bounced back with more fantastic tunes.
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01. My Queen Of Winter 04:14 02. More Than Friends 04:19 03. Oceans Of Regret 06:20 04. Gather The Faithful 03:50 05. Into The Blue 04:25 06. Dawn Of Solace 04:18 07. Thorn In My Side 04:07 08. Morpheus In A Masquerade 06:50 09. Stolen Waters 04:34 10. Elegantly Broken 02:46

Supergroups. They’re a bit of a mixed bag; for every Cavalera Conspiracy or Hellyeah, there’s an Audioslave or a Zwan. Cain’s Offering are the Finnish power-metal supergroup; former Sonata Arctica guitarist Jani Liitmatainen joins forces with Stratovarius vocalist Timo Kotipelto and Wintersun bassist Jukka Koskinen. The lineup is filled out by drummer Jani Hurula and keyboardist Mikko Härkin, who was also briefly in Sonata. Given Timo’s prior commitments with Stratovarius (who released their twelfth album in the summer) they haven’t actually performed live together yet, existing in essence as a studio project. It’s a testament to the ability and professional nature of the band’s members that they don’t allow this to adversely affect them to any great extent, still managing to come out sounding tight and unified on record.

Musically Cain’s Offering generally manage to find just a bit more of an edge than recent offerings from Sonata or Stratovarius, although the symphonic bent of the latter’s music still manages to creep in. I say “creep”, it basically batters the bloody door down. I’m going to attempt to stop the comparisons to the band’s ‘parent’ groups there, however, and judge them on their own merits, although it may prove difficult to review a Finnish power metal album without making reference to some of its most eminent exponents.
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