Weekly Falconer

Sorry I missed my Tuesday post. I have no excuse, except it's been a busy week and I forgot. So here's your Friday post instead, and once again, it is in celebration of Falconer. It is only two weeks now until I get to see them live at ProgPower USA. My outfit (as their performance falls on Corset Night) is complete, my friend from Austria who will be sharing this experience with me is about to get on a plane for the United States in a mere two days, and soon, packing of my own luggage will begin. As it draws nearer and nearer, it becomes harder to believe; especially when I realize how much money I spent on it. Between buying ProgPower tickets, reserving a hotel room, and paying for my flight, this is a very expensive trip all to see one band live. But worth every penny? Hell yes, it will be.

Today, we celebrate Falconer with my favorite song of theirs. It was Mathias Blad's vocals that got me into Falconer, but this song is one in which I feel the instruments are more impressive than the vocals. The riffs in this song have made it one of my all-time favorites. Every time it comes up on shuffle, I do a little happy dance in my mind. This is Herr Peder Och Hans Syster, from the 2011 album Armod, which features a real brother-sister singing team, Mathias and Heléne Blad.

As a bonus, I'm also sharing a car commercial that featured this song. Yes, a car commercial. That featured Falconer. This commercial blew every Falconer fan's mind when we first found out about it... and also let every Falconer fan down when we got to actually see it. While it's awesome that their song was used (and my favorite song at that!), it's comical, to say the least, that they chose the actors they did to fill in for the band members. I understand why the actual band couldn't be in the video, but whoever cast the roles clearly did not do their research, as the band in the commercial, particularly the vocalist, couldn't look less accurate. A long-haired, headbanging vocalist? Nope, definitely not the Mathias Blad we know. And that's part of his charm. But at least they got the logo right, and chose a badass song.

Bi-Weekly Falconer Post

I'm a little late, as I had a very long night and was out late -- went to see a production of Gypsy that included two of my actor friends, and then had a late-night dinner with some of the cast members after the show. As a result, it is now 5:00 on Saturday morning. Who says musical theatre people don't know how to party? Anyway, since I haven't gone to bed yet, it is still Friday in my mind, and that means that it is exactly three weeks until ProgPower USA. Technically 20 days now, 'cause, you know, Saturday. But hey, 20 days is even better.

Because it's so late, and I do require some amount of sleep (thank goodness I don't have to work tomorrow), this entry will be short and to the point. The following is an example of why I cannot wait for the 11th to come around. This is just a video, and it has awful sound quality at that, but I'm still in a fit of ecstasy over the first song. That voice! After all these years I will finally hear him sing live. I especially can't wait for this song. Musically it isn't necessarily one of my favorites, but it showcases his voice so well... and that little vocal breakdown that occurs not once, but twice, has always been one of my favorite moments. I could listen to it over and over. Despite the horrible quality of this video, I have already listened to it several times, picturing how much more amazing it will be in person. Did I mention I'm really looking forward to this show?

Weekly Falconer Post

This week's pre-show Falconer post (leading up to ProgPower) consists of two music videos. First off, we have Falconer's first music video from 2005. Hopefully the band will have no hard feelings against me for posting this because it's quite a laughable video, and not intentionally. It was obviously very low-budget, and let's be honest, the video didn't turn out well at all. If I remember correctly, Stefan Weinerhall stated, before the video was even officially released, that it looked dumb and he was unhappy with it. Between the makeup, the staged headbanging and the horrible acting of the female lip-syncher who appears out of nowhere at the end (and isn't even the actual vocalist), this video is just plain bad.

That being said, I do like the song and its anthem-esque chorus. I would love if it, somehow, they decided to throw this into their set at ProgPower. With Mathias Blad singing it for what I believe would be the first time, and the crowd singing along with that chorus, it would make a fantastic farewell song for their final live show.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the video for Emotional Skies, from their 2005 album Grime Vs. Grandeur, featuring Kristoffer Göbel on vocals.

Now, to show what Falconer is capable of when they have a bit more of a budget... their awesome 2008 video for Carnival of Disgust, from the album Among Beggars and Thieves. A lot changed in 3 years, including the switch back to their original vocalist, Mathias Blad. Though the change in vocalist had nothing to do with the quality of their music videos, it did change the entire tone of the music when they brought him back. Check out the little vocal epilogue at the end of this video.

Tystnaden

Tystnaden is a band from Italy that I discovered several years ago. Though they've been around since 1999, it seems they've never achieved any significant amount of recognition, to the point that they don't even have an entry on Wikipedia and when I type their name into YouTube the first thing that comes up is a Swedish movie from 1963. In fact, I believe the band was named after this movie, if I remember correctly. Though the band is Italian, the word 'tystnaden' is not - it is actually Swedish for 'silence'

This isn't a band I've followed very loyally over the years. In fact, I didn't even know until just now that vocalist Laura De Luca left the band, which apparently happened a couple of years back. Laura was the vocalist on all of their album releases, but their Facebook page now has a ton of photos of new vocalist Giada Etro, who seems to have been performing live with the band as far back as 2013. That's what I get for not paying attention. That being said, I can't offer any opinions on Giada's vocals, as I've never heard her sing. Laura, on the other hand, had a very distinct voice and accent. The accent was a little strong for me, as it seemed she didn't actually speak English that well (and all of their lyrics are in English) but I do think she is a quality vocalist and can't be faulted for her accent. I can only imagine how horrible my accent would sound if I attempted to sing in Italian!

Anyway their music has been a bit hit-or-miss with me, but they do have several songs that I think are fantastic. They are touted as gothic metal, but some of their music is a bit too nu-metal sounding for my taste. However, not all of it is. I think that fans of bands like Epica and Lacuna Coil might like Tystnaden as well -- if they are fond of clean female vocals mixed with male grunty/growly vocals.

One thing that I really like in their music is how certain songs have very obvious Italian elements. One of the cool things about metal bands existing all over the world is when bands include elements of their country's traditional music in their metal.

Here are a few Tystnaden songs I really like. The first is a beautiful ballad that really speaks to me musically and lyrically. The other two are just really cool metal songs that also feature those Italian-sounding elements I spoke of.

One month until FALCONER

Back in September of last year, I made this post in a fit of ecstasy. I had just heard the announcement that Falconer would be performing their final live show at the ProgPower USA festival on September 11, 2015. This was huge news to me because Falconer's vocalist, Mathias Blad, is my all-time favorite singer, and I had been under the impression that I would never, ever have a chance to see them live. This is a mostly studio band who have performed only a handful of live concerts in their 15 years together. Of that handful, the majority took place during the short time Kristoffer Göbel was their lead vocalist instead of Mathias, who is unable to commit to touring due to his full-time job as a musical theatre actor. And of all the shows they've ever done, only one of them had been in the United States; it was 12 years ago and Kristoffer was vocalist at that time.

For all of these reasons, I, an American Falconite, thought that my chances of seeing Mathias live with Falconer were just about on par with my chances of seeing Elvis Presley. Until that day last year, I viewed it as so improbable that even putting it on my Bucket List would have been pointless. (Yes, I have a real Bucket List, and it does include attending certain concerts.) Plus, not only would this be their first and last show in the United States with Mathias, but their last live show ever; after this night, Falconer will continue as a strictly-studio band. This was literally a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and I vowed that I would be there no matter what. Even though I had just made a move across the country and hadn't found a job yet, even though I would have to travel 2,000 miles to the concert venue, the question of "How can I make this happen?" never even entered my mind. I went straight into "I'm going to see Falconer" territory and never looked back. It was a blissful moment in which a halo of light surrounded me and a choir sang one heavenly note. I bought my ticket minutes after they went on sale (and they sold out within 6 days).

Now, only one month remains until that glorious day. An entire year of anticipation will come to an end in one monumental night.

Over the next month, many of the posts on this blog will be related to Falconer and ProgPower, to chronicle my preparation and journey toward one of the best musical nights of my life.

For now, I leave you with one of the most rare and beautiful Falconer songs: their 2006 remake of "Child of the Wild." This song was originally recorded with Kristoffer Göbel on their 2005 album, Grime vs. Grandeur. The following year, after Göbel had been fired and Mathias Blad had returned to the band, the song was re-recorded for their album Northwind. However, it was only released as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of the album. For the band's 15th anniversary, band leader Stefan Weinerhall was kind enough to upload the track to YouTube for all of us. Thanks, Stefan - for everything.

Hysterica's First Video - Lock Up Your Son

After ten years, two full-length albums and one EP, badass metal chicks Hysterica have finally released their first music video.

I love this band. Their first album was good, but their second one is one of my favorite albums. Almost every song on it is solid, one of those albums I can listen to all the way through without skipping anything. I appreciate that their music seems to incorporate several different subgenres of metal: power, doom, death, etc. but overall, it is just pure, unadulterated metal. I feel the same about their vocalist. She has some pretty impressive pipes, and I like that she just gets out there and sings her heart out. It sometimes seems like there are only two types of female singers in metal anymore: the "operatic" female voice and the "death growl" voice. This chick is just a metal singer who gives it her all.

When they announced last year or so that they had signed with a new label, I was hoping that something like this would happen. And I hope that they continue to move forward and receive the recognition they deserve. They have only released a 5-song EP on the new label so far, but the future is promising.

Hysterica seems to be continuing down the path of awesomeness with their new single, Lock Up Your Son, which has now been released as their first ever music video. It's a pretty straight-forward video, but I love the song!

Back From Hiatus + OOMPH!'s new video

The Queen of Thunder is back! I apologize for my extended absence. As an experimental blog that I've never really advertised and that doesn't have many readers, I tend to forget that it exists sometimes. But I want to put an end to that.

To avoid losing my mind, I recently went from working full-time to only working two days a week. The rest of my time I am using to focus on things that are more important to me, such as music and writing (and volunteer work and going to the gym). As part of this dedication to creative and enjoyable tasks, I'd like to breathe new life into this blog -- and not just today, but on a regular basis from this point on.

So I'd like to announce that I will now be updating this blog, in one form or another, EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY. These posts can be in-depth reviews or simply a YouTube link to song I'm enjoying at that time. But one way or another, I will be updating twice a week at the minimum. Posts may be made in between these days as well, as needed. Additionally, to show that metalheads can have other musical interests as well, I will begin doing one non-metal post every month. You will never see me post hiphop or country, as these are my mortal enemies -- but songs and articles I share may encompass a variety of other genres, such as oldies, jazz, classical, musical theatre, or whatever else strikes my fancy that month. Don't worry, each non-metal post I make will probably be accompanied by a metal post made on the same day.

I may include a lot of Neue Deutsche Härte and even some of the heavier darkwave stuff in my definition of metal. Today I'd like to share Oomph!'s new music video, Alles aus Liebe. As you may know, I am a huge Oomph! fan. I include them in my top 5 favorite bands of all time, so I'm excited for their new album, which was released only a week ago. I haven't bought the album yet, but I soon will. The first official music was released not long before the album, and it's a pretty great song.

See you on Tuesday!

Singing the Praises of Brother Firetribe

Most Nightwish fans have probably at least heard of Brother Firetribe, thanks to the fact that they share a guitarist (Emppu Vuorinen). But most of the people I mention them to have never listened to them. I do everything I can to change that. I HIGHLY recommend this band to almost everyone I meet, especially if they tell me they enjoy 80's music. I can't recommend them enough, in fact.

And everyone I introduce them to ends up loving them. Because they're bloody amazing.

Some people might say they aren't "real metal," but those people are stuck-up elitists who don't know how to have fun. Brother Firetribe's music is ALL about fun. And considering that the title of their first album was "False Metal," I don't think they care what you think.

A friend of mine, to whom I recently introduced them, said the following statement after listening to a few of their songs: "They sound more 80's than most of the 80's bands." Maybe you don't like 80's music. To each their own, even though I think you're crazy. If you do like 80's music, though, you need to hear Brother Firetribe. Their songs aren't your typical metal by any means, but some might argue that they are metal in its truest form. This band doesn't care about much else other than having fun, and their songs inspire people to do just that: have fun. Some of the best nights are ones where I just stay at home listening to Brother Firetribe's albums on repeat and rocking out all night. Over the past two years, their first album has been played about 80 times, their second one about 60 times - on my laptop alone.

I will admit that their music sometimes takes a little time to grow on you. But if you listen to them long enough to let them grow on you, you will be so glad you did. Their songs are definitely "sing along" songs; half the fun is in knowing the lyrics and belting them out shamelessly. Once you know the songs well enough to sing along, you will have the time of your life. You will want to blare their music and sing at the top of your lungs on every road trip you take for the rest of your life.

I will be seeing Nightwish live in about a month and a half, and I hope I get the opportunity to praise Emppu for his involvement with this band and blather on and on to him about how they need to come to the U.S. so I can see them. I would be more excited about seeing them than Nightwish.

Here are five of my favorite Brother Firetribe songs:

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!)

Eisbrecher - Verrückt (I Have a New Theme Song)

It's not "new" anymore, per se, but it has taken me a long time to get around to listening to the most recent Eisbrecher. This is the video for Verrückt, which is definitely going to be my new theme song. Those who speak any German, fluent or not, will probably understand from the title. Otherwise, feel free to translate the title/lyrics if you really want to know!

Great song. Awesome video. Makes me want to go out and buy the album, which I'm sure is what they were going for!