Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell

Approximately forty years ago, Jim Steinman and Michael Lee Aday, better known as Meat Loaf, set out to create the ultimate motor cycle crash song. They succeeded.

When I was a child my parents owned a copy of “Bat Out of Hell” on vinyl, and I remember looking at the cover art and being fascinated by what I saw. Some muscular biker dude was bursting out of the ground of a graveyard on a motor cycle ready to confront a giant bat. I remember my older brother and I wanting to hear this record and learn how this biker was going to fight the giant bat. Despite that story not existing in any context on the actual content of the music, when we finally did listen to it the narrative stories therein did not leave my young mind disappointed. The music was so epic that it satisfied my youthful wild imagination, even though I was too young to fully appreciate the social dynamics of a song like “Paradise by The Dashboard Light.”

“Bat out of Hell” is a one of kind album, even though there are now three albums by that name by Meat Loaf. Despite reasonably revisiting the general and vague album concept of bat out of hell twice more there could not be a real recreation of the original. A perfect storm of creativity was unleashed when “Bat Out of Hell” was produced. The two men involved Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman were both extremely eager to explode onto the music scene and their combination of talents was exactly what the world needed.

Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf.

Jim Steinman was a marginally successful screen writing for a handful of musicals, and Meat Loaf was a virtual unknow who’s primary body of work consisted of playing a supporting role in the musical “Hair.” Both men were eager to break into the mainstream, Steinman was a methodical thinker and had a masterplan all sorted out, meanwhile Meat Loaf was a force of nature, a powerful singer who presumed he would charge his way to success with sheer force of will. Their chance meeting came when Steinman was looking for a unique singer with an unique presence, someone possessing something special, an edge, a certain grit. Steinman was hoping for a handsome young man, who would sound and look the part of a Hollywood star, what he got instead was a powerful fat man who sang perfectly for his ambitions but looked nothing like what was expected. While uncertain at first if Meat Loaf was the right choice for this project, Meat Loaf successfully charged his way into Steinman’s life.

It should not have worked. From a business perspective, the concept album of “Bat Out of Hell” should not have been a commercial hit. The forty-five-minute album had only seven songs on it, making the average song length six and half minutes in length, typically far too long to be pop music radio friendly. Grandiose epics about motor cycle crashes and trying to hook up with the head cheerleader were in theory too aggressive and uncouth for the late seventies and arguably still now. Also instead of a young pretty boy as the front they had this berserking fat man singing his heart out. In theory that should not appeal to the simple-minded masses, but magically this is one of the those times when something totally awesome was deservedly well received by everyone.

Effectively “Bat Out of Hell” is one of those rare perfect albums, and a persistent candidate for my list of ten albums to include on a deserted island.

My favorite song on this album has change about six times in my life but I have found in recent years the title track has persistently stood out to me the most.

As stated in the opening sentence of this review, “Bat Out of Hell” is the greatest motor cycle crash song ever recorded. The opening is over two minutes of instrumental, which is one of the many reasons this album should not have had much success with pop radio. However, this serves multiple purposes, beyond simply being fantastic. Steinman having trained himself to write full musicals is presenting his overture in this opening two minutes. The pace and tension is set for high drama without a word being uttered.

With out first verse the scene described in the beginning of “Bat Out of Hell” is one of violence and danger:

“The sirens are screaming, and the fires are howling
Way down in the valley tonight.
There's a man in the shadows with a gun in his eye
And a blade shining oh so bright.
There's evil in the air and there's thunder in the sky,
And a killer's on the bloodshot streets.
And down in the tunnels where the deadly are rising
Oh, I swear I saw a young boy down in the gutter
He was starting to foam in the heat.”

Street and gang violence is what is present here. This fits perfectly with the motor cycle theme but also with Steinman’s interests, the man always seemed fascinated with gang warfare, leather jackets, and guitars, this because all too obvious when we discover “Street of Fire” a Jim Steinman musical movie about exactly all these things described just now.

Our rock and roll hero, has come to town for one reason, some babe he is in love with, for she is “the only thing in this whole world, that’s pure, and good, and right.” But like a bat out of hell he’ll be gone when the morning come. Taking off “faster than any boy has ever gone” he with blaze our out of town on his motor cycle.

Steinman had wanted to include the sound of an actual motor cycle in the song, and at the six-and-a-half-minute mark you can hear it, only it is not a real motor cycle but rather guitarist Todd Rundgren mimicking the sound of motor cycle with his guitar. This is made all the more impressive when you discover he had to improvise the sound after the studio disallowed Steinman to use the real thing.

Then it happens, the crash:

“Then I'm down in the bottom of a pit in the blazing sun,
Torn and twisted at the foot of a burning bike,
And I think somebody somewhere must be tolling a bell.
And the last thing I see is my heart, still beating,
Breaking out of my body and flying away
Like a bat out of hell.”

I have never been entirely sure how to take the part about his heart breaking of his body and flying away. I thought it might have been about ascending to heaven after death, a final redemption, where our rock and roll hero’s soul breaks free from hell in the after life. Or perhaps it is meant to simple declare the intensity of his passion and love for the women he is presumably singing this song to.

Epic might an inaccurate description for “Bat Out of Hell,” perhaps over the top would be more appropriate. Everything about Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman, and “Bat Out of Hell” is dramatic. What could be a straight forward song about crashing your motor bike and dying becomes this nearly ten-minute rock opera about gang violence, true love, and possibly salvation. We all seek these things, we want things to be dramatic, and that is probably why the zealous melodrama of “Bat Out of Hell” appealed to so many people, myself included.

In conclusion, “Bat Out of Hell” is a great song. Most of you already knew that, but it bears repeating.

- King of Braves.

Europe - The Final Countdown

I have been doing this for ten years now and this is the two hundredth music in review.

I have seen a lot of people start projects and let them die as quickly as they dreamed them up, because the struggle is real, doing creative things is hard work and time consuming. Few people maintain a blog for a decade and even fewer maintain the consistency that I have, and I am happy to say this speaks to work ethic and will power.

I have been pondering what special song should be elected to represent the two hundredth music in review. I was at times counting down the reviews until this moment always thinking about I should hold up a uniquely worthy of number two hundred. A quick turn of phrase was charming enough to me to decide upon one of my favorite one hit wonders Europe and “The Final Countdown.”

The aptly named Europe is one of Sweden’s first notable rock bands. Europe, the band, created big waves outside of Europe, the continent, with their huge hit “The Final Countdown.” It was the eighties and “Final Countdown” is one of my favorite songs from the hair band era, so while I was not old enough to enjoy this hit’s songs rise and fall on the charts, and because of this I never heard the song until the mid 2000s. “The Final Countdown” somewhat disappeared from popular listening for a couple decades, and I cannot recall a time when I have ever heard it on terrestrial radio, but it has proven to have lasting power as many other than just myself have rediscovered and enjoyed the song at length.

“The Final Countdown” appears to be about space colonization. People leaving Earth and heading for Venus, where other living beings will greet them, and there is this curiosity regarding what the future holds and whether or not any of them will return to Earth. At least that is a fair assumption from the two verses provided:

“We're leaving together,
But still it's farewell,
And maybe we'll come back,
To earth, who can tell?
I guess there is no one to blame,
We're leaving ground,
Will things ever be the same again?

We're heading for Venus,
And still we stand tall.
'Cause maybe they've seen us,
And welcome us all, yeah.
With so many light years to go,
And things to be found,
I'm sure that we'll all miss her so.”

The unknown is the condition of the Earth. It would be fairly standard to tell a tale about how humankind has ruined the planet with pollution, and the single line that suggests to me that this is the case in “The Final Countdown” is “I guess there is no one to blame.” Blame for what? Blame for ruining Earth? This of course casts doubt as to whether our space wanderers will ever return. One thing is for certain, everyone leaving will miss her; her being Earth.

Ever since the invention of the electronic keyboard the sounds produced were part of progressive rock and used to assist in musically story telling of science fiction adventures. This method is being used in Europe’s “The Final Countdown.” It is clear from the lyrics we have a science fiction theme, but even without them, the opening synth which becomes the rhythm for the choruses and outro could not be mistaken as anything other than a grandiose space adventure. Amazingly this holds true for even instrumental acoustic and orchestra versions, though perhaps that has more to do with my mind’s already associated connection to such themes now imbedded into this song, no matter version.

Earlier in the review I mentioned in passing that “The Final Countdown” is a one hit wonder, and this is primarily true from a non-European perspective, which I have. However Europe enjoyed great success and fame beyond “The Final Countdown” the song, within the continent of Europe, most notably in their native Sweden. The entire album, also titled, “The Final Countdown” was a huge hit in Sweden and other European countries. Some fans note “Carrie” as their magnum opus, though I have always been a little more partial to “Time Has Come” and “Rock The Night.” Because of this perseverance within Europe for the band Europe, an interesting cult following has emerged and now Europe, the band, is regarded, justifiably so, as a brilliant gem of eighties rock and roll.

Nonetheless, how I could ever love any Europe song more than “The Final Countdown?” It is such an instantly catching and recognizable song with a fun theme and great sound. If I were to consider Europe a one hit wonder they would be right up there with Zager and Evans as the greatest, and interestingly enough, both songs indulge into science fiction. It is a fantastic fun time song and absolutely worthy of being the two hundredth music in review.

Until next year, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves.

P.S.

I initially wrote this with Finland as Europe's native country.  A friend corrected me on this and the post has been edited appropriately.

Billy Idol - Rebel Yell

When I was in high school I was convinced that Billy Idol was most likely the coolest person alive at some point in time in the 1980s. He must have been right? Billy Idol is a really good dude. He is a solid singer and song writer, he was part of the popularization of punk music, and that hair, not a lot of people can pull that off.

I listened to Billy Idol’s greatest hits approximately a few hundred times when I was in high school. As impressive as that may be, I will forever be a poser fan, since that is the only album of his I have ever owned; and as we all know best of albums are for posers. The point is I used to listen to Billy Idol a lot.

Based on numerous past reviews and comments made by me it should be pretty clear that I consume a lot of youtube, and I often allow myself to drift down rabbit holes and just see what comes up. I was listening to a random mix based on various songs I had recently listened, virtually every song was a video I had listened to multiple times recently, but there was a handful of videos by the same artists I was listening to. Then, somewhat randomly, the next song up was Billy Idol “Rebel Yell.” That was the next recommendation by youtube, and it was certainly a good one, for I really did want to listen to that song next, even though I would not have picked it out by myself uninitiated. I do not think I had heard “Rebel Yell” for eight years or so at that point. How did that happen? I guess I moved on? Only I didn’t because I was so happy to hear Billy Idol again.

Then it started happening, the radio station I wake up started playing Billy Idol as my morning alarm. The usual four songs played, “Dancing with Myself,” “Mony Mony,” “White Wedding” and my favorite “Rebel Yell.” Systematically I heard all four of these songs over the course of about a week while rising from my slumber. As you see Idol is one of those many musicians who’s musical arsenal is largely ignored, which is a huge injustice, he has some really good songs beyond those four, and to be fair, I used to watch the music video for “Eyes Without a Face” all the time on MTV back when MTV actually played music; also I believe I have heard “Catch my Fall” on the radio once before. “Catch my Fall” is a wonderful balled from the otherwise punk rocker, and if I was a smarter man I should probably be reviewing that underappreciated song but not today, my love of “Rebel Yell” supersedes other motivations at this time.

Roberta Wesley's "Rebel Yell."

The year was 1982 or possibly 1983, I am not entirely sure, Billy Idol’s first album had come out and was a big hit. Idol was attending a party in the southern states, I am not entirely sure which one, when he gazed upon the Roberta Wesley painting “Rebel Yell,” at least I think that was the painting he saw. In case you could not guess it has been a long time since I last heard this story.

The “Rebel Yell” is a very common phrase used by the confederate soldiers to describe their battle cry, so it is entirely possible that this story I heard once many years ago may have involved a different painting titled “Rebel Yell” but Wesley’s appears to be the most famous painting titled that, so I am going to guess that was the one Idol saw. Regardless Idol was very taken with that simple phrase “Rebel Yell,” he thought it was fucking brilliant, and his next song, and in fact album, would be titled just that.

Despite the southern confederate fountain head of inspiration, Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell,” the song, has nothing to do the civil war or the confederate army. Idol just really like the expression “Rebel Yell” and who can blame him? It is a fantastic pair of words to exclaim the passion of rebellion, something the southern forces and a punk rocker would connect with.

Idol’s “Rebel Yell” is about sex, well mostly, about sex. This is hardly surprising, most of Idol’s songs had very sexual themes and his videos presently had very strong sexual imagery in them. Recall that “Dancing with Myself” seemingly a rather innocent song at first glance is actually about masturbation; so, when the chorus of “Rebel Yell” comes at us with:

“In the midnight hour, she cried more, more, more,
With a rebel yell she cried more, more, more.”

Why a rebel yell? You might ask. Well I suppose there are countless ways to approach this, but the broadest angle from which to attack would be that we live in a world of sexual shaming. The act of sexual expression in most cultures is one of shame, so Billy Idol writing songs about sex is a sort of rebellion in it’s own right. The little dancer who came to his door, as described in the song, is breaking our archaic norms of intimacy and coupling, and this is perhaps best captured in the line “she don’t like slavery, she won’t sit and beg,” and by invoking the metaphor of slavery Idol has firmly entrenched this song into a rebel’s cause.

The rest of the song dwells in Idol’s obsession to please his little love angel. I am particularly found of the bridge before the final chorus, where things slow, and Idol lists all the things he would do for this woman:

“I walked the ward with you, babe,
A thousand miles with you,
I dried your tears of pain, babe,
A million times for you,

I'd sell my soul for you babe,
For money to burn with you,
I'd give you all, and have none, babe,
Just, just, justa, justa to have you here by me.”

This leaves me pondering, at least a little, if “Rebel Yell” is actually something of a love song? Self sacrifice, is often the behaviour of a man in love, although this is the sort of actions taken by a man enthralled in lust; so really it could go either way. In rock and roll there are a great many unconventional love songs, and drowning love in lust should not necessarily diminish it’s quality. Perhaps we only think so because of the afford mentioned culture of sexual shame we all live in. Perhaps also this blatant flaunting of raw human sexuality is even more of a corner stone of punk rock. At last we must also ponder the possibility that “Rebel Yell” is little more than the mad ravings of a prisoner of lust, and hey, that is still fantastic. Perhaps I only peer into “Rebel Yell” for something deeper because of songs like “Catch my Fall” which are surprising sweet from the otherwise cock out cock rocker.

I enjoyed my reconnection with Idol. Though I was too young to properly appreciate the man’s work when he was fresh on the music scene Idol served a similar role in my youth to those a decade older than me experienced. Billy Idol is a really cool dude rocking out to all the things young people enjoy, notably sex and rebellion.

- King of Braves

Boston - More Than a Feeling

When choosing songs to review I often like to discuss songs that no one I know in my social life are talking about. I often talk about songs that have little to no presence on terrestrial radio. I like to shine a spotlight on songs that are underappreciated or unjustly unknown. This however is not my only criteria and hardly my sole motivation.

Younger readers of this blog may struggle to relate to this, but when I was young discovering new music was hard. The only realistic means was to listen to the radio, and in my part of the world we only had a handful of radio stations, in fact I could probably count them out if I was serious and I believe there would have been no more than six, and that would be including talk radio. Naturally the only station I liked at that time was CJay 92, the classic rock station. As we all know there are some songs that get played routinely on classic rock stations and in turn are understandably titled the dreaded status of “overplayed.”

A song being overplayed in theory weakens its appeal, and I am not immune from this phenomenon, there are doubtless many songs out there that I now underappreciate because of their constant presence in my life. In turn it is the songs that defy this rule that have always stood out to me. Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” has never gotten old to me and I must have listened to that song well over a thousand times in my life by now. Guns N Roses “November Rain” still resonates as strongly to me as it did the first time I heard it. Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” still sparks within me a joy and comfort every single time I hear it.

I have discussed “Stairway to Heaven” and “November Rain” before, so it is now time to discuss “More Than a Feeling.”

Tom Scholz

“More Than a Feeling” was a true passion project for writer Tom Scholz, as he spent five years creating it. Even before Boston was a band Scholz was working on “More Than a Feeling” and the final product does ooze with deep emotion and a very fine refinement in structure and sound. It is a great success story because “More Than a Feeling” is now a stable of classic rock, and the debut album of Boston was a huge commercial success and was loved by critics.

The lyrics suggest a longing for a lost love Marianne, and how an old familiar song reminds the narrator of Marianne. The chorus is very clear in this regard:

“It's more than a feeling (more than a feeling),
When I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling),
And I begin dreaming (more than a feeling),
Till I see Marianne walk away.
I see my Marianne walkin' away.”

It is easy to get wrapped up in Marianne when analyzing this song, so many songs are about lost loves and longing thereof for a return to togetherness, however the true focus for Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” rests within the “familiar song.” This song is primarily about the feelings old familiar music invoke in us. Call it nostalgia if you must, but there is something very powerful about the slipstream of memories and emotions we can experience through song. I talked about this before in several reviews about how something tangential or completely unrelated to the song’s actual meaning is called up in my mind because of where that song was most heard by me or how it was introduced to me. That old song, Scholz refers to the chorus, just so happens to remind him of Marianne walking away. Marianne is just one wonderful example of old feelings of potentially countless being brought up by music.

There is apparently a real Marianne, but she was not some lost love of Scholz, rather she was one of his cousins. When Scholz very young he thought his cousin, Marianne, was the prettiest girl he had ever met and thought he was in love with her. Evidently this is a very innocent love, one of extremely youth filled with simple wonderment. Nothing more than, “my cousin is pretty” but that too is an old memory and rather a kind hearted one at that.

There is something potentially unintentionally meta about “More Than a Feeling,” a song about music bringing out emotion in us all, ultimately has the exact affect itself while describing the experience itself. How befitting “More Than a Feeling” is now an old familiar song that invokes in countless people a wide range of tangential and unrelated feelings and memories from those in Scholz’s heart. How appropriate that “More Than a Feeling” be titled what it is, it is not just a fun little line to emphasize the intensity and power of the feeling in question, but has become much more than a singular feeling. Within the context of the song is meant to be something more significant than just an emotion, a surge of memories and music combining to be something more. The cultural significance is now a nearly infinite number of all those things with every person who loves this song, and has become to represent so much more than a feeling.

In finality “More Than a Feeling” is a perfect song. Thank you, Boston, you rock.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves

Sabaton - Shiroyama

“Encircled by a vulture,
The end of ancient culture,
The dawn of destiny draws near.”

Speaking of new albums in 2016, Sabaton released their eighth studio album titled “The Last Stand.”

I have discussed Sabaton twice before and they are likely to become a mainstay on this blog since they are one of the most exciting active bands I have discovered in recent years. Sabaton’s whole thing is that they are a metal band and all their songs are about European military history. Seriously I learned a lot about the rise and fall of the Swedish empire and many major battles in world war two just by listening to these guys. It is like I am getting an education while rocking out, which is pretty ideal.

Sabaton’s latest work is, more or less, the same sort of thing we have seen before, more badass metal songs about military history, the only notable slight difference is that there appears to be a theme of finality, the end of something, many of the battles presented in music form on “The Last Stand” are exactly just that, a last stand, a final conclusion to things.

The song “Sparta” is about the battle of Thermopylae, the hot gates, where famously three hundred Spartan warriors held off a Persian invasion that outnumber them absurdly for an absurdly long time, resulting in the death of every Spartan hoplite. While this was far from the end of the Sparta city state or their military presence in Peloponnesian peninsula, it was certainly one of the most epic ends to a military campaign and the lives of those who fought in history of all warfare.

The title track “The Last Stand” is about the Pope Clement the seventh’s Swiss guard defending his escape from the Hasburg Spain attack. The Swiss Guard was thoroughly annihilated and ceased to exist for a long time until the Hasburg occupation ceased, so this was literally the last stand of the Holy See’s military guard.

Lastly, we have “Shiroyama” which is understandably about the battle Shiroyama, the final battle in the Satsuma Rebellion. As Sabaton points out, this is the last stand of the samurai, and in many ways, I feel this song better captures the spirit of the album “The Last Stand” than even the title track of the same name. Spartans would bounce back from the loss of three hundred men and arguably win the war against their Athenian rivals. The Swiss Guard exist today, so while temporarily removed from activity the Swiss Guard did recover. Samurais however are no more, and Shiroyama was the last time the way of the samurai would have any meaningful military or political significance. Of the three songs I have pointed too only once depicts the literal final end of a military body and way of life, “Shiroyama” is a song that literally is about the last stand of samurais in all human history.

“Shiroyama” is my favorite song from the new album. It helps that I love Samurais. I made it an issue to see as many castles as I could when I visited Japan. Also I made a day trip to Kitakyushu and Ganryujima where the famous duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro took place. It also helps that “Shiroyama” has one of the catchiest guitar rifts in all Sabaton’s playlist. “Shiroyama” stands out as one of Sabaton’s best songs to date and that is saying a lot given how strongly I feel about their previous albums “Charlos Rex,” “Coat of Arms,” and “The Art of War.”

One cannot do a review of a Sabaton song without a history lesson so here it is.

The Satsuma Rebellion was fought between the newly established Empire of Japan and the Satsuma Domain.

The Empire of Japan came from the Meiji Restoration/Renovation/Revolution/Reform/Renewal, or whatever we decide to call it, where Emperor Meiji was restored as the emperor of Japan but more importantly, at least for this conversation, the Empire of Japan ushered in the technological advancement in both industry and military. The Empire of Japan would lead Japan to becoming a world power and transformed itself in 1947 into the modern Japanese federal government that we know today.

The Satsuma Domain was one of the most powerful feudal domains in the Tokugawa Japan and among the wealthiest throughout the Edo period. Unsurprisingly they remained a classical samurai culture and were hugely disenfranchised by the rapid changes in the politics and culture of Japan’s primary ruling forces. The rebellion spawned from a resistance to these changes as well as a shift in power dynamics. It is difficult, or impossible, for the old ways to survive in the face of change, especially when that change represents technological and military advancement; or how Sabaton puts it:

“It's the nature of time,
That the old ways must give in.
It's the nature of time,
that the new ways come in sin.

When the new meets the old.
It always ends the ancient ways,
And as history told,
The old ways go out in a blaze.”

It was not just military supremacy of the Empire of Japan that resulted in their unavoidable eventual victory over Satsuma Samurais, but also the power of numbers. The old ways were dying out, and there grew to be less and less people living in Japan who held on to the traditions of the Samurai by the time the Satsuma Rebellion transpired. They were impossibly outnumbered as well as brutally out armed.

“Imperial force defied,
Facing 500 samurai.
Surrounded and outnumbered,
60 to 1 the sword face the gun.
Bushido dignified,
It's the last stand of the samurai,
surrounded and outnumbered.”

Saigo Takamori.  Leader of the
Satsuma Rebellion.
Argubably the last samurai.

Given the basic common knowledge we all possess of Samurais it should come as no surprise that the Satsuma soldiers elected to fight to the death instead of surrendering. Their leader Saigo Takamori suffered a bullet wound and escape to either die from the injury or was killed by his own men who then buried his head elsewhere so the enemy would not find it; all of this done to preserve their leader’s honour. Then the forty remaining samurai drew their sword and refusing to surrender die in battle.

"An offer of surrender,
Saigo ignore contender,
The dawn of destiny is here."

The wind of change is an unstoppable juggernaut and will not be denied. It is easy to point to the guns and cannons as the deciding factor in the demise of the samurai, and the failed Satsuma Rebellion, for how could they possibly combat such a superior fighting force? However the Satsuma samurais were also in use of some canons and guns, the change of face of combat and war had already affected all serious fighting forces on the islands of Japan, and indeed everywhere. It was always just a matter of time before the sword was replaced with the gun.

War will forever be a dark yet glorious subject, however in the conversation of the battle of Shiroyama there is an added level of tragedy. The bravery and extreme devotion to their warrior’s code of honour is inspiring and everything about that way of life was wiped out in this fateful battle in Kagoshima. It is very tragic, but then again, all war is.

- King of Braves

Avantasia - Draconian Love

If there is one takeaway from this blog it is this: Avantasia is the greatest music act in the world today.

I love a lot of bands but few have I reviewed five times, in fact I believe Avantasia takes the lead now with this new review. I have been devotedly following Tobias Sammet’s career ever since I discovered the Lost in Space LPs, the teaser before the launch of “The Scarecrow” album, and as such I have reviewed every album as they came out since then. This year, 2016, Tobias released the seventh studio Avantasia album “Ghostlights,” naturally I feel like I should talk about it.

There is one downside to falling in love, everything else seems less special. I fell in love with “The Scarecrow” and “The Wicked Symphony,” I still regularly listen to those albums and I cannot honestly say that about the other four albums predating “Ghostlights.” It is important that we understand that, “Angel of Babylon,” “The Mystery of Time,” and the original “Metal Opera” albums are all really good, it is just that everything, and I mean basically everything, in all of creation, pales in comparison to “The Scarecrow” and “The Wicked Symphony.” So really… no matter how good “Ghostlights” turned out to be I would always compare it to those two titan albums and be at least partially unimpressed.

Tobias Sammet, still earth's greatest
song writer.

“So how is ‘Ghostlights?’” You might ask me. It is really good.

The wonderful adventure of Avantasia has been such a joyous journey (to Arcadia) that there is really only so much more Tobias can do to allow it to feel original. The continue addition of new guest singers is a perpetual development that helps keep things fresh but surely Tobais is slowly, but surely, running out of heroes to invite to his super group.

Similar to “The Mystery of Time,” “Ghostlights” appears to have a fantasy/science fiction theme involving once again time as focal point, and once again, most wisely, Tobias has left the story open enough for individualized interpretation. The similarities to “Mystery of Time” are in fact so great that it turns out this new album is meant to be the conclusion of that story.

I really like the first two tracks on the album “Mystery of a Blood Red Rose” and “Let the Storm Descend Upon You” and for exact opposite reasons.

I really like “Mystery of a Blood Red Rose” because there is no guest singer and it is one of the very few tracks in the Avantasia library where Tobias sings alone. It gives the creator of the whole thing a chance to truly shine and it is a really good song. 

Mystery Of a Blood Red Rose

  

I really like “Let the Storm Descend Upon You” because it has the most guest singers of any song on the album, including Jorn Lande, Ronnie Atkins, and Robert Mason. A twelve-minute epic that does in fact descend us into a storm of music that is the album itself. 

Let the Storm Descend Upon You

 

I have thought long and hard about which song to focus on and after four hundred and ninty-three words of introduction I think I have settled on “Draconian Love.”

“Draconian Love” opens with a nice piano that segues into the rhythm section, and is joined mostly by the haunting tone of Herbie Langhans’ voice repeating what will become the chorus:

“You shed draconian love.”

It is an effective chorus and tells us basically all we need to know about the metaphor for this song. Draconian, meaning dragon like, shedding its love, not dissimilar to not a snake molting, shedding its skin. Dragon love, sure that works, and evidently it is fleeting, or peeling if you will.

“Draconian Love” is a song of peaks and valleys as far as volume and intensity fluctuate. The verses are somber and gentle in tempo, meanwhile whenever the chorus hits everything picks up with the drums rising before every instrument strikes all at once and Tobias and Herbie sing with spite and anger. We get the full gambit of emotion with a sense of rising tension as we near the song’s climax. Before the last repetition of the chorus we are met with our greatest contrast; every instrument goes silent except for the keyboard and Herbie both being their quietest during this song, then when the last chorus opens it crashes into us with the greatest of intensity.

This contrast in sound is also a contrast of emotion, the verses are sad and lonely grieving over lost love. The chorus is a fury demanding to know “where are you now?”

Herbie Langhans.

One last thing to note is just how good Herbie is on “Draconian Love.” Which raises the question that you might ask me, “who is Herbie Langhans?” Honestly? I have no idea. This is actually why “Draconian Love” won out in the end for my song of focus, because it brings forth this paragraph of discussion. Apparently, Herbie is part of Sinbreed, Symphonity, Beyond the Bridge and Whispers in Crimson, four bands I have never heard of before, though he appears to be most famous for his work with Seventh Avenue, another band I have never heard of before.

This is one of the greatest things about Avantasia however. I had never heard of Bob Catley or Magnum before “The Story Ain’t Over.” I had never heard of Ronnie Atkins or Pretty Maids before “Invoke the Machine.” Amazingly I had never heard of Michael Kiske or Helloween before “Another Angel Down.” I had heard of Jorn Lande and Masterplan, before I heard “Promised Land” but still, you see my point. How I have Herbie Langhans and Seventh Avenue, and apparently, a bunch of other bands, to go and discover now, and if they are even half as good as the bands and artist mentioned above then my life is about to be immeasurably enriched once more.

The moral of the story is “Ghostlights” along with it’s predecessor “The Mystery of Time” cannot compete with “The Scarecrow” and “The Wicked Symphony” but they are fantastic nonetheless. The awesome adventure that is Avantasia continues and they are still the greatest musical act in the world, and I will never, ever, understand why it is so difficult for me to get more people to listen to them.

- King of Braves

Ghost - Square Hammer

I really like Nuclear Blast Records. They produce a majority of my favorite active bands and I keep discovering new artist I love through Nuclear Blast’s website and youtube channel. One band that kept popping up in my recommendation feed recently was a Swedish band simply called Ghost, and after having multiple songs thrown my way I decided that I really liked the song “He Is.”

This is where I would normally start talking about the song mentioned in the opening paragraph, but “He Is” may have to wait for another day for a review, because there is another song that boldly stood out to me.

I made a number of really interesting friends when I travelled to Europe several years ago and they really paid off as facebook friends, as it turns out I have a lot in common with the random cool dudes I met in Hamburg. One was a fellow Canadian working in the United Kingdom, whom recently, shared Ghost’s “Square Hammer.” I am so thankful he shared that song, I love it. The moral of the story it is wise to make friends, presumably for a lot reasons, but one of those reasons is discovering more awesome music.

Before we go any further I should give Ghost a proper introduction because they are a complicated entity. Coming from the Daft Punk School of wishing to keep their identities secret, everyone in the band is dressed completely in costume of their fictional entities. The lead singer is called Papa Emeritus and he wears full face paint that resembles a skull and is often deck out in the mock attire of a satanic version of the Vatican’s pope, so yeah, that is pretty intense. The other five members of the band all wear ghoul masks and are literally referred to as “Nameless Ghouls” and are only identifiable by the unique alchemy signs they wear representing the five elements of fire, water, earth, air and ether. Hey remember when people thought ether was a thing? That’s some old school archaic science. 

Papa Emeritus and the Nameless Ghouls

There are a few advantages to hiding your identity the way the band members of Ghost have. The first is that it forces the audience and listeners to focus less on the men behind the craft and more on the actual art itself.

Another advantage is turnover; a lot of European bands have experienced major issues with band turnover. If no one knows who any of the band members are, then replacing them can go largely unnoticed and theoretically not harm or change the style of the band and its music in any meaningful way. The band Ghost, claim they have had a different Papa Emeritus on every album thus far, totaling three. The fictional reasons behind the replacements has to do with Emeritus the first and second failing to destroy churches and promote Satan effectively, which as I type out, sounds ridiculous, but hey Ghost are playing Satanist so that’s what we get. Rumor is that it has been the same Papa Emeritus this whole time and Ghost is just joking with us claiming they have ran through three lead singers and since we do not know the real identity of anyone in the band we cannot confirm or deny the validity of this claim.

Another interesting rumor is that Dave Grohl was one of the ghouls on one of the tours, just for a goof, since you know, Dave Grohl is kind of a lovable goof and that is the sort of thing he would do.

Now let us return to “Square Hammer.”

The song “Square Hammer” is a very catchy song, and when I first heard it I found myself bobbing my head along and let every hook catch unto to me. I read somewhere that Ghost were heavily influenced by Iron Maiden and that I think is a fair comparison, the base line gallops like Steve Harris, and two lead/rhythm guitars is arguably the greatest charm of later days Iron Maiden music and is mimicked in nature by the band Ghost. As an intense lover of string instruments, having three guitars filling the sound of the melody and harmony is something I also love. “Square Hammer” is a song I would describe as full and rich, there is very little empty sound in the song, a note or a beat fills every part of the song and is flush at every second from beginning to end, a very alive song.

I did not take particular notice of the lyrics at first few listens but around listen twenty or so I naturally started to memorize the chorus and verses and in that moment I knew just how casually Satanic Ghost was.

“Are you on the square?
Are you on the level?
Are you ready to swear right here, right now,
Before the devil?”

Well that is fun. Despite being so very Satanic, worship of the devil is not something that is forced into the song, it is just there, like it is the most natural thing in the world to bring up swearing before the devil, because for the fictional entities Papa Emeritus and the Nameless Ghouls it is the most natural thing.

Appropriately dramatic.

The video itself is fantastic. I really like Papa Emeritus, I liked his dramatic body language, every gesture he made significant and made me pay greater attention, it was almost like he was a silent film actor, which is appropriate since the video for “Square Hammer” is an ode to the 1920’s German silent film era.

I got the impression the video was a silent film concept but I did not pick up on the smaller details until I showed the video to a friend of mine who is a huge movie buff, upon seeing the opening shot, he says to me “Ah Metropolis.” I had actually seen that one and had to agree with him. He then continued pointing out the 1920’s German silent film references for me, most notably the part where a coffin opens on its own was a direct reference to “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.”

“Hiding from the light,
Sacrificing nothing,
Still you call on me for entrance to the shrine.
Hammering the nails,
Into a sacred coffin,
You call on me for powers clandestine.”

Like I said earlier, it is good to have friends, you can learn a lot about the history of film.

One last thing before I wrap this up. While writing this review, it was a Sunday night I thought I would check and see if Ghost were coming to town anytime soon. Tuesday. Literally two days and they would be in Calgary. So naturally I went. I was excited because I freaking love “Square Hammer” and “He Is,” I had learned a passing familiarity with a few of their other songs but I mostly going into the concert blind, not entirely knowing what to expect. It was a perfect storm of a good time.

My discovery of Ghost was still so fresh that not one second of the show felt slow of mundane, everything was exciting and new to me; most of the songs were new to me anyway. The live performance was masterful with excellent execution. Papa Emeritus had amazing stage presence and all those gesture and body language of quirky interest from the “Square Hammer” video were present on stage. The bits of dialogue were amusing on every imaginable front, curious and humorous and wonderfully casually satanic. When introducing the final song of the night “Monstrance Clock” Emeritus said, “This song is celebrating the female orgasm... in the name of Satan!”

I had a really good time.

It is not every day I get to discover a band like Ghost were literally about them and everything I learn about them I enjoy and crave more. This is indeed a wonderful world we live in where a satanic metal band can be so thoroughly enjoyable.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves

P.S.

They won a Grammy: