★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Today witnesses Legion Within’s first formal album release by KMFDM Records. Originating from Seattle, Washington, the band formed in 2000 & Mouth of Madness is their fourth full-length to date. The album was crafted over a period of two years & it was a tough process for the band. It was written during a time when band member’s lives were fraught with personal tragedy & upheaval. However, they seem to have powered through this difficult time to create a mature blend of darkwave & industrial rock.

On first listen Mouth of Madness sounded like the type of album KMFDM & London After Midnight would produce if they joined forces. The core sound is very typical of darkwave/industrial rock bands (synthesisers & distorted guitars), but that is not to say the album is generic. There are elements of enough different genres throughout the record to make it interesting & ultimately creating “a dark mosaic of musical styles” to set them apart. For example, ‘Memories of You’ is more melancholy & one of the slower tracks on the album, incorporating a haunting cello & ghostly electronics into their sound. ‘Demon’s Arm’ begins with a female soprano eerily singing over the intro, & even more surprising was penultimate track, ‘Mall Cops of Freedom’, a swing/big band-style track with tounge-in-cheek lyrics.

Their songs range from romance, escapism, & tragedy to dark humour & flights of sadistic fancy. They are also a band who are not afraid to get political. Many of their lyrics reflect disquiet with the current state of the world, particularly the title track which focuses on a “shattered world” with “corporate drones”, & ‘So Happy’ questioning how people can be happy living this life. ‘The Empire Is Burning’ is a similar track, openly criticising America with biting lyrics such as: “Torture’s back in fashion, it’s American chic, no one gives a damn about the frail & the meek”.

The album draws to a close with a remix of the title track by Käpt’n K (Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM). I’m not overly fond of remixes, but this does serve to highlight his obvious influence throughout this record. However, I do not wish to take anything away from the band, they have created a successful dark rock album of their own using many different elements. It may not be exactly the type of music I like, but its quality shines through.

You can download the title track for free via the KMFDM store.

Official Site | MySpace

To be honest, I don’t own many releases from 2008, so I’m probably not going to have much to write about. I am just a poor student after all & I usually live in the past musically – because it’s cheaper! Maybe buying more music from the present day should be my resolution for 2009 haha.

Despite the lack of purchases from this year & since this is my 100th blog post, I would like to talk about some music that I did buy or get to listen to in full.

Death Magnetic
Metallica (hard rock/metal)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I’ve seen sooooo many people bitching about this album. Yes, it’s not thrash metal. Yes, some of the lyrics are cringe-worthy. Yes, they have in some ways “self-plagiarised” (if that’s even possible, PitchforkMedia?). Yes, they sued Napster. Yes, Lars is a knob. Blah blah blah. However, coming from a person who doesn’t care too much about genres or what a band member is like, I think this album is awesome. I love every bit of it & can listen to it over & over. It’s definitely a better album than St. Anger (although that wouldn’t have been difficult), Kirk’s solos are back & it’s probably the only Metallica album I can listen to all the way through without getting fed up. It doesn’t feel like each track is about seven minutes long either. I think it’s a great hard rock/metal album & I don’t give a crap what anyone else thinks. I’m looking forward to seeing them live in March!

Favourite Track(s): ‘Broken, Beat & Scarred’, ‘The Day That Never Comes’, ‘All Nightmare Long’, ‘The Unforgiven III’… it’s hard to choose!

Not Everybody Gets a Happy Ending
Die So Fluid (hard rock)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

An awesome follow up to their debut album, Spawn of Dysfunction.

Read the review

Favourite Track(s): ‘Existential Baby’, ‘Happy Hallowe’en’, ‘Vorvolaka’, ‘Gang of One’

Who Killed Amanda Palmer
Amanda Palmer (punk cabaret)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Who Killed Amanda Palmer is the interesting debut solo album of Dresden Dolls frontwoman, Amanda Palmer. I loved the whole concept of this album before I even listened to it. What was supposed to have been a simple, stripped down album became a big project involving Ben Folds, Zoe Keating & many more musicians! The project has spawned videos for (I think) every track on the album & even a book by Neil Gaiman. From what I’ve heard & seen on the internet, the live performances have been spectacular as well. I like the majority of the album & I think lyrically it is brilliant, with Amanda tackling some tough issues such as rape, abortion & highschool massacres. However, some of it is a little slow for me, with too many piano ballads. I realise that was the idea, to separate it from the more aggressive Dresden Dolls sound, so maybe in some ways I prefer them. I definitely do prefer the more chaotic music a la ‘Runs in the Family’ & ‘Girl Anachronism’, but some of the slower tracks (particularly with Zoe Keating on cello) are great as well. Amanda Palmer is an amazing woman, & I think there are more great things to come from her in the future.

Favourite Track(s): ‘Runs in the Family’, ‘Astronaut’

Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace
The Offspring (punk rock/pop-punk)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

An album that took me by surprise! Not exactly anything new from The Offspring, but a much better album than Splinter & a catchy summer album.

Read the review

Favourite Track(s): ‘You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid’, ‘Hammerhead’, ‘A Lot Like Me’, ‘Stuff is Messed Up’

Throat Full of Heart
My Ruin (hard rock)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I must admit that it took me quite a while to get into this album fully. I loved ‘Ready for Blood’ on first listen, but the rest took a while to grow on me. It is much heavier & more ’screamy’ than previous albums. I think I changed my mind about it when I saw them live for the first time in January; songs I hadn’t taken to, like ‘Slide You the Horn’, sounded much better to me live & it is one of the highlights of the album for me now. I think the main reason why I like this album is because I can relate to it so much. This is true of every My Ruin album & as things in my life change, the albums seem to follow me. The album really summed up my second year of University which in some ways, without going into too much detail, was a disaster. Tracks like ‘Ready for Blood’ (‘time heals everything – except this hatred in my heart / friendships that can cease were never true’), ‘Skeleton Key’ (‘everyone is starved for attention these days’), ‘Me Without You’ (‘yesterday has come & gone / there is no looking back / today we smile & laugh / the past is just the past’), sum it up perfectly. The album is also extremely powerful because it was recorded soon after the near-fatal car accident that vocalist, Tairrie B, was involved in. You can really hear the pain & emotion in the vocals & lyrics, especially in the final track ‘Through the Wound’, which was written about the accident. Inspirational.

Favourite Track(s): ‘Ready for Blood’, ‘Slide You the Horn’, ‘Me Without You’, ‘Dragon Steel’… hard to choose from this one as well!

This Would Be Paradise (EP)
Auf der Maur (MAdM) (rock)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I had been waiting ages for this EP! This three track EP is a nice little taster of what is to come in 2009 & I’m really excited about it. I won’t go over it again in too much detail, since I’ve already talked about it on the blog, but Auf der Maur will be releasing OOOM (Out of Our Minds) in the Spring, which consists of an album, a film, a comic & the website is up & running already. The EP is similar musically to the debut album, although the bass is slightly more prominent & the music trippier. However, it is quite hard to pigeonhole her sound. What I can say is, the tracks are definitely better lyrically than the first album, which is what she wanted to achieve this time around. The third track is music with a sample over the top: ‘Man can now fly in the air like a bird, swim under the ocean like a fish, he can burrow into the ground like a mole. Now, if only he could walk the earth like a man, this would be paradise.’ Hopefully there are more good things to come from MAdM!

Favourite Track(s): ‘Willing Enabler’

Ghetto Love (EP)
Spinnerette (alt rock)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This four track EP is not at all what I expected from ex-Distillers frontwoman, Brody Dalle! The EP is a varied mixture of songs & genres. The title track is a funky, groovy tune that I can never get out of my head or stop dancing to. As I’ve said before, you can definitely hear hints of Queens of the Stone Age in there, even if Brody doesn’t think so. ‘Valium Knights’ is equally as good, however ‘Distorting a Code’ is very different. I wasn’t too fond of it on the first few listens… it didn’t really sound like Brody & it was a bit too girly & sing-songy. It’s recently grown on me & it’s another one that gets stuck in my head, especially the chorus! The final track still hasn’t grown on me & it’s quite repetitive & forgettable, thankfully it’s not on the album though, just a b-side. Overall, a promising EP; I’m interested to hear the album

Favourite Track(s): ‘Ghetto Love’, ‘Valium Knights’

White Birds (EP)
Sarah Fimm (electronic rock)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

There is really only one word to describe this six track EP: beautiful. Everything about it is beautiful, the electronic/trip-hop music, the strings, the lyrics, the artwork & most of all, the vocals. It’s also amazing that it’s been given away for free, so you can listen to it for yourselves! I’ve written more about it in the post below this one.

Download the EP

Favourite Track(s): ‘Afraid’, ‘Counting Waves’

Biggest disappointment of the year:

Only By the Night
Kings of Leon (rock)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I tried to like this album, but I find it too boring to listen to. When I first bought it I probably would have said that I liked the first five tracks of the album, but I can’t even bring myself to listen to some of them now. I’ve been accused of turning against them because they’ve broken fully into the mainstream, but that is only true to the extent that they are being played to death on every channel & radio station that I’ve become sick of them, particularly ‘Sex on Fire’ (which I did like) & ‘Use Somebody’ (which bores me to tears). The sound of the first two albums is sadly long gone & I loved Because of the Times, but they did not maintain the interesting parts of the new sound; it’s just generic stadium rock now.

What do you think? What were your top albums of 2008? Do you disagree with me about anything? Share your opinions!

Keeping with the cello theme this week…

Zoe Keating – Time is Running Out | Original

I’m not a fan of Muse, but I think that Zoë Keating’s cover of ‘Time Is Running Out’ is awesome! I really do love how she uses the electronic sampling while playing live, it’s very cool.

Break of Reality – B.Y.O.B | Original

Another great cello-rock band, Break of Reality, do an absolutely awesome job of covering System of a Down’s ‘BYOB’ – it’s really impressive!

Apocalyptica – Until it Sleeps | Original

Finally, this one was completely predictable… it is, of course, Apocalyptica. I wanted to put up their cover of Faith No More’s ‘From Out Of Nowhere’, but YouTube doesn’t seem to have it :( so I guess you’ll have to make do with one of many Metallica covers! I think this cover of ‘Until It Sleeps’ is my favourite they’ve done, it’s very beautiful.

As many of you know, I am a sucker for the cello & love anything experimental with the instrument. At the moment I’m adoring the track ‘Exurgency’ by Zoë Keating (which you can download for free here). It’s just over 8 minutes long, but don’t let that put you off. If you like the cello as much as I do, you will not regret it!

Zoë Keating is a Canadian-born cellist and composer based in Portland, Oregon. She played second-chair in cello-rock band, Rasputina, from 2002-2006. According to her biography, in her solo performances & recordings (particularly the ongoing project she calls “One Cello x 16″) she uses live electronic sampling & repetition in order to layer the sound of her cello, creating rhythmically dense musical structures. She has been described as a one-woman string quartet & it sounds great!

Her 2005 album “One Cello x 16: Natoma” is also partially streamable here.

Official Site | MySpace

It’s quite rare that I watch music channels these days, but I’m glad that cellos caught my eye as I was flicking through the TV this morning. As most people who know me know, I absolutely love cellos/cello rock & I’m quite excited that Apocalyptica are releasing a new album this year. The album will be released in the UK on the 14th September. The first single to be released from it will be ‘I’m Not Jesus’ which features the wonderful voice of Corey Taylor (Stone Sour/Slipknot). It’s a really great song & I really like the video for it. You can see it here. The sound quality isn’t brilliant, but it’s better quality visually & more in sync than the others on YouTube.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Apocalyptica are a Finnish musical group consisting of three classically trained cellists & a drummer (as of 2005). They began as a Metallica covers band & have also covered bands such as Faith No More, Sepultura & Pantera on their albums. Over the years they have included more & more original songs on their albums, & they have become one of the most original metal bands in history.

Anyway, the single will be released in the UK on September 24th. For more information about when it will be released in other countries & for samples of more tracks from the album you can either visit their Official Site or MySpace Page.

Other guests on the album are: Till Lindemann (Rammstein), Dave Lombardo (Slayer/Fantomas), Tomoyasu Hotei, Joseph Duplantier, Cristina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil), Mats Leven (Therion). Should be good!

Official Site | MySpace | Tour Dates