The Shadow Theory

Now that I've had two weeks and have listened to the album in its entirety a good 10 times (at least), these are the tracks from Kamelot's new album, The Shadow Theory, that I consider to be my 5 favorites.

1. Vespertine (My Crimson Bride) [track 11]. An almost instant favorite, this song is so classic Kamelot that I almost expect Roy Khan to be singing it. It stands out among the rest of the album, and although I love the heavier, darker sound they have now, I appreciate this throwback to when they were a bit more upbeat and power metal. Despite becoming my favorite so quickly, and despite listening to it many times (on repeat on a few occasions), I show no signs of getting tired of it.

2. Burns to Embrace [track 5]. There's something chillingly beautiful about a choir of children singing, "We are the last to walk the Earth." It was a great choice to end the song that way, basically saying, "If things don't improve, there is no future and this generation will be the last." I appreciate the apocalyptic imagery and sound of the outro, especially after the majority of the instruments cut out to focus more attention on the children's voices. And the chorus in general is pretty great, whether it's sung by Tommy or the apocalyptic children's choir.

3. In Twilight Hours [track 6]. While I'm normally not the biggest fan of female vocals and adding them unnecessarily into every male-fronted album, I really like the duet on this song. Especially after I learned it well enough to sing it. Ballads are always fun if they're well-done, and I really like this one. The male and female duet works really well with the lyrics here, and doesn't feel like it was done for the sole purpose of having a female guest singer.

4. Kevlar Skin [track 7]. This one's lyrics remind me of Darth Vader, so as a Vader fangirl, that's a plus. ("Underneath this kevlar skin, I'm waiting for you to uncover me. And in this armored prison cell, I'm hiding my scars - come discover me." And overall, it's just a good metal song. The speed and heaviness of it hearkens back to my favorite song from the previous album (Revolution) and I like that sound a lot.

5. Amnesiac [track 4]. "Say my name, no beautifying filters. I'm craving that honest pain." I love this line about craving something honest and raw in a sometimes overly-airbrushed, social media-dominated world. Another great chorus on this song.

Overall, I like the album a lot more than I was expecting to. I don't know why I thought I'd be disappointed, but I definitely wasn't, and the more I listen to the album, the more I like it. Really cool lyrical themes and amazing vocal performances throughout the whole album. The drums are fantastic, as well, even if it isn't Casey Grillo doing the drumming. It's basically impossible to listen to this album without drumming on something. I guess I should have expected nothing less from Kamelot, but I still try to go into things with the realization that the artists aren't perfect and there will be letdowns once in awhile. This isn't one of them, however.

Concert Review: Ashes of Ares + Local Band Triple Play

Until Thursday night, I hadn’t been to a metal show since Mother’s Day of 2014. I was feeling quite deprived. 2014 was a horrible year for concerts, but 2015 has already made up for it, and as you probably already know, will only get better and better. I saw Frankie Valli live only 6 days earlier, but as this is a metal blog, I won’t share my review of that show. As I said, this was the first metal show in about 8 months. I feel much better now.

To be honest, I hadn’t listened to Ashes of Ares much before. I’d seen the music video a couple of times and checked out a couple of other tracks from the debut album, but had never given it the amount of attention I actually wanted to. However, I’ve always been a Matt Barlow fan, so when I found out they were coming to my city for a special one-off show, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to see him live and shake his hand.

I arrived too early for this show because I didn’t want to miss any of their set, and I actually wasn’t sure if there would be any opening bands because they hadn’t been advertised (that I had seen). I even left work early to get there on time. Then I had to sit through THREE opening bands, only one of which I actually enjoyed. (I’ll talk more about that later.)

You have to love venues like Joe’s Grotto because they are so intimate, even when fully packed. Add that to the fact that there weren’t as many people there as I was expecting, and this became a fantastic location for my first live experience with Ashes of Ares. There’s no better way to experience a live band than being literally up against the stage, only about three feet from the musicians. Especially when one of those musicians is Matt Barlow, one of the most powerful, talented and badass vocalists in metal.

The only thing that adds to that experience is knowing all the words and being able to sing along, which I unfortunately was not able to do for this show. That definitely did not stop me from having an amazing time while this band was performing, though. Barlow absolutely did not let me down, and everyone on stage was not only talented, but personable, funny, and just plain awesome.

As the band only has one album so far, their set was far too short. They simply played the debut album in its entirety. This is another reason I wish I had been more familiar with their music beforehand. I think it's awesome when bands play entire albums live, from start to finish; but when you don't know the album, it isn't the same. I didn't even know this was what they were doing until Barlow mentioned it. I did buy the CD from the merch table after the show, for the record. I also came home with a setlist as a souvenir, because everyone knows I love my concert souvenirs.

Also, I have to give a shout-out to their newest guitarist and his beautiful, unusually long hair. Actually, his hair is about the same length as mine (top of thighs), and as such a long-hair fan, I of course took notice. Which led to this funny little exchange taking place between songs: Matt introduced the guitarist as the “new guy” in the live band, and basically asked the crowd if he was doing well. The crowd cheered and screamed and when it quieted down enough, I yelled, “And he has awesome hair!” To this statement, Matt replied, “He does have some sexy damn hair, doesn’t he?” The guitarist, whose name I sadly cannot remember (and can‘t find on Google either, so please clue me in if you know his name), stepped up to the mic and joked that he was waiting for his shampoo endorsement to come through. Personally, I think he should pursue this. Unfortunately, none of the photos I took do any justice to the hair.

On a similar topic, it's almost ironic that Matt Barlow is now the only person in this five-piece band with short hair. As you may remember, his curly red locks used to be the stuff of legends. In fact, I'm not ashamed to admit that I like a page called "Matt Barlow's Hair" on Facebook. But these days, as he is also a police officer by day, he's rocking a very short hairstyle, and is no less badass because of it. Thankfully, chopping off the hair did not make him lose his powers.

In short, I had a really good time at this concert. At least during the second half of it. Which brings me to the opening acts.

The first two bands who played just weren't really my style. I won't mention either of their names, as I don't want to disrespect the musicians, whom I'm sure are great people and love what they do. But if you know me, you know I'm not a huge fan of "Cookie Monster" vocals or indecipherable screaming. I enjoy growling and screaming only in small doses to accentuate the lyrics; listening to it throughout an entire song, or EVERY song, gets old very fast. And these two bands, I felt, were very much like a lot of American metal bands: too stereotypical. All the songs sounded basically the same, and a lot of times just sounded like noise. The lyrics, as I said, were indecipherable and the music itself just didn't seem to have much creativity to it. I can't even tell you what any of the songs were called because I couldn't understand the vocalists when they growled the song titles. Even their cover songs were stereotypical. Metallica, Lamb of God. There's nothing wrong with those bands, but can't we do something a little less... overdone? This is one thing that bothers me greatly about most American metal.

However! There was one shining star among the opening acts, and it goes by the name Triple Play. A local band based in Show Low, AZ. This band was not at all what I was expecting. After the first two acts, I was expecting the third one to be more or less along the same lines. Then they began to play. And I realized I could actually make out chords and words and it didn't just sound like noise. It sounded like actual songs, individual songs instead of the same one over and over. Although they were the least "heavy" band of the night, sounding more along the lines of classic rock than heavy metal, they were the band who rocked the house the most out of the three openers, inspired the most enthusiasm among the crowd, and greatly improved my mood halfway through the night.

In fact, when they first began their set, I was near the back of the venue, sitting down and trying to rest because I had an awful headache and the first two bands hadn't helped it. But before the first song was over, I knew I had to be up front where the action was. I was enjoying their performance too much to be sitting down. The band was unique, enthusiastic, and a lot of fun to watch. Musicians and audience members alike were having a great time.

My favorite part of their performance was their "Foot Soldiers" song. At least I believe that is what it's called, and I'm sure the band members will correct me if I'm wrong. I read it off of the setlist on stage in front of me (which means I was reading upside down) because the song impressed me so much I wanted to remember its name for future reference. The drum beat in this song = amazing. The breakdown of the song, when all three members of the band played the drums in unison, creating a sort of tribal effect = amazingggg. After this song ended, they mentioned that it was the first time they'd ever played it live, which makes it even better.

Only a song or two into Triple Play’s set, I had forgotten all about my headache and was focusing on having a great time instead. And I have to say these guys' instruments are just as unique as they are; they look like they were all bought at yard sales and held together with duct tape -- or stolen from their neighbors' trash cans. But they sure know to play them, and that’s all that matters. Plus, the drum set has spiders on it.

When all was said and done, and I was about to walk out the door and go home, I spotted these guys at a table in the back of the bar area. So I turned around, marched back in, and bought a CD from them.

(All photos in this blog post were taken by me!)