Transatlantic - The Final Flight Live At L'Olympia (Inside Out Records) [Simon Black]
It’s a difficult term to accurately nail down a firm definition of, given that it’s applied to everything from projects assembled from members of established acts either or past or present, as side projects when parent acts are resting, as artificial potpourri’s from Italian Hard Rock labels or as pretty much a full-time career if you are Neil Morse and Mike Portnoy, currently making a living out of running about six of them in parallel.
They really do churn out a lot of content together – The Neal Morse band, Flying Colours, Yellow Matter Custard and Transatlantic, which was when the two first started working as a team. You can argue if you like which of the two is the winner of this unofficial prolificity tournament, although with at least six other Supergroup projects still on the go outside of the ones listed above you might think Portnoy deserves the gong, but then never forget that Morse has his own festival - Morsefest.
Although the first recognised ‘Supergroup’ in music was probably either British Rock act Cream or US Folk-Rock act Crosby, Stills & Nash, Progressive bands have really made the concept their own. Special mention should also probably go to the grand-daddies of them all, Yes, but they and their numerous incarnations, reformations and in-between coagulations probably deserve a sub-genre category all of their own.
It’s a difficult term to accurately nail down a firm definition of, given that it’s applied to everything from projects assembled from members of established acts either or past or present, as side projects when parent acts are resting, as artificial potpourri’s from Italian Hard Rock labels or as pretty much a full-time career if you are Neil Morse and Mike Portnoy, currently making a living out of running about six of them in parallel.
They really do churn out a lot of content together – The Neal Morse band, Flying Colours, Yellow Matter Custard and Transatlantic, which was when the two first started working as a team. You can argue if you like which of the two is the winner of this unofficial prolificity tournament, although with at least six other Supergroup projects still on the go outside of the ones listed above you might think Portnoy deserves the gong, but then never forget that Morse has his own festival - Morsefest.
So there… You get the idea – they’re busy chaps, but for my money Transatlantic hold a bit more weight by virtue that they bring Marillion’s Pete Trewevas and The Flower Kings’ Roine Scott, thereby for me hitting the definition of a Supergroup as a long-lived recording and touring outfit, and the one incarnation that I would put myself out for and go and watch live.
Touring being the name of the game today, with this monstrous three disk effort clocking in only ten minutes short of three hours also being something of an endurance test. It was recorded on the final night of the European tour leg of 2021’s The Absolute Universe, a release with at least three different versions of in existence already now having a fourth.
The longer 90-minute incarnation of the album is the backbone of the piece, but there’s also a hell of a lot more crammed in, with truncated extended medley versions of whole previous albums truncated into 30-minute blocks and a few other standalone favourites besides, making this good value for money if a little heavy to wade through for the poor reviewer.
There is a full Blu-Ray version as well, which I suspect will be the better format to appreciate the material by, given that this recording is not high on crowd engagement, with audience sounds being down in the mix and therefore loosing some of that crucial atmosphere, but the clips that have surfaced online indicate that this was there aplenty, so for my money would be the ideal format.
What it is, as is always the case when musos of this calibre get together is a cracking example of modern prog rock from the top end of the league. Lengthy it may be, challenging to get through when you have a publishing deadline to meet and want to give it enough spins to appreciate to the fullest extent for sure, but a delight to listen to, nonetheless.
That said, the compressed medleys of previous albums actually work better for my money, as they’re absolutely the best way to consume the highlights of the studio release in a format that still works live, but to be fair those three hours don’t drag too much overall, and the flow and chemistry between these absolute masters of their game remains a joy to listen to from start to finish. Long may it continue. 8/10
Host – IX (Nuclear Blast) [Simon Black]
The seventh studio album from Paradise Lost has proven to be a watershed moment of divisiveness for the veteran purveyors of (mostly) sublime gothic metal from God’s own Country of Yorkshire. Released in 1999, it saw the peak of their dalliance with a more 80’s Electronica vibe, that earned them the nickname “Depeche Lost” around that time. As often is the case when large groups of people react negatively en masse online, it is usually at the expense of a few basic facts and some much-needed context, because this album was far from some strange moment of aberrance for an act who let’s face it, are as Metal as fuck when they want to be.
Let’s start with the concept of ‘gothic metal’ itself. The whole goth scene of the late 70’s into the 80’s (and by that I mean as espoused by the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Killing Joke, Joy Division, Bauhaus, and the Cure) owed way more to the post-punk than rock, in turn inspiring both the popyer New Wave movement of the early 80’s, and it’s slightly heavier incarnation of 80’s doomier and gloomier sounding goth rock like The Mission, The Sisters Of Mercy or Ghost Dance. It’s only when they came along and brought with them the start of a defined anti-fashion look and sub-culture in its own right that the Venn diagram of crossover between goth and metal had a chance to flourish.
Goth metal took the goth rock moodiness, down tuned the fuck out of it and blasted itself loud and proud with some overdriven guitar and relentless drumming and in the case of Paradise Lost in their early days, an extreme metal vocal technique. The whole movement really started in Yorkshire, which also spawned Anathema and My Dying Bride around the Peaceville label in the early 1990’s, but the point I am slowly coming to is that all the historical genre influences of the previous two decades were all in that melting pot of influences that created both the gothic metal movement, and specifically what Nick Holmes and Gregor Macintosh fed into Paradise Lost in the first place.
I would argue that if you listen to the way that they construct their songs, guitar lines, chord progressions, lyrics and arrangements that this was the case from the get-go right up to today. The only things that they have flexed with extensively over the decades is the amount of distortion used on the guitars, the vocal style of Nick Holmes (ranging as it does to full on death gargle to New Wave clean and every shade in between and back again over the years) and the relative contribution of the keyboards and where they sit in the mix. If you don’t believe me, track down a live recording of a song from that contentious period and watch them play it in a more metal style, and what you get is something that could have come from any other period of their existence.
For every fan that resents the three or so albums when they experimented with a lighter overall sound, there are those that love it, and personally I far prefer it when the vocal style is less death metal for the plain and simple reason that I like to actually listen to lyrics and Holmes actually has a pretty damn good voice. With PL now firmly back with their heavier roots, there’s a void where the material from the turn of the millennium can sit, because although you can play those songs with Metal tropes and make it work, it doesn’t always go back the other way quite so well.
So here we are in 2023 with the pair sipping back into their own and Paradise Lost’s history with a spin-off project named after that album that everyone claims to hate (whether they have actually listened to it or the ones either side of it or not), but which musically is more directly attributable to early goth and new wave electronica than PL ever were during their experimental phase of 20 odd years ago. It started as a lockdown project to keep Macintosh sane, but given their shared history and strength of songwriting partnership, Holmes got looped in.
Touring being the name of the game today, with this monstrous three disk effort clocking in only ten minutes short of three hours also being something of an endurance test. It was recorded on the final night of the European tour leg of 2021’s The Absolute Universe, a release with at least three different versions of in existence already now having a fourth.
The longer 90-minute incarnation of the album is the backbone of the piece, but there’s also a hell of a lot more crammed in, with truncated extended medley versions of whole previous albums truncated into 30-minute blocks and a few other standalone favourites besides, making this good value for money if a little heavy to wade through for the poor reviewer.
There is a full Blu-Ray version as well, which I suspect will be the better format to appreciate the material by, given that this recording is not high on crowd engagement, with audience sounds being down in the mix and therefore loosing some of that crucial atmosphere, but the clips that have surfaced online indicate that this was there aplenty, so for my money would be the ideal format.
What it is, as is always the case when musos of this calibre get together is a cracking example of modern prog rock from the top end of the league. Lengthy it may be, challenging to get through when you have a publishing deadline to meet and want to give it enough spins to appreciate to the fullest extent for sure, but a delight to listen to, nonetheless.
That said, the compressed medleys of previous albums actually work better for my money, as they’re absolutely the best way to consume the highlights of the studio release in a format that still works live, but to be fair those three hours don’t drag too much overall, and the flow and chemistry between these absolute masters of their game remains a joy to listen to from start to finish. Long may it continue. 8/10
Host – IX (Nuclear Blast) [Simon Black]
The seventh studio album from Paradise Lost has proven to be a watershed moment of divisiveness for the veteran purveyors of (mostly) sublime gothic metal from God’s own Country of Yorkshire. Released in 1999, it saw the peak of their dalliance with a more 80’s Electronica vibe, that earned them the nickname “Depeche Lost” around that time. As often is the case when large groups of people react negatively en masse online, it is usually at the expense of a few basic facts and some much-needed context, because this album was far from some strange moment of aberrance for an act who let’s face it, are as Metal as fuck when they want to be.
Let’s start with the concept of ‘gothic metal’ itself. The whole goth scene of the late 70’s into the 80’s (and by that I mean as espoused by the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Killing Joke, Joy Division, Bauhaus, and the Cure) owed way more to the post-punk than rock, in turn inspiring both the popyer New Wave movement of the early 80’s, and it’s slightly heavier incarnation of 80’s doomier and gloomier sounding goth rock like The Mission, The Sisters Of Mercy or Ghost Dance. It’s only when they came along and brought with them the start of a defined anti-fashion look and sub-culture in its own right that the Venn diagram of crossover between goth and metal had a chance to flourish.
Goth metal took the goth rock moodiness, down tuned the fuck out of it and blasted itself loud and proud with some overdriven guitar and relentless drumming and in the case of Paradise Lost in their early days, an extreme metal vocal technique. The whole movement really started in Yorkshire, which also spawned Anathema and My Dying Bride around the Peaceville label in the early 1990’s, but the point I am slowly coming to is that all the historical genre influences of the previous two decades were all in that melting pot of influences that created both the gothic metal movement, and specifically what Nick Holmes and Gregor Macintosh fed into Paradise Lost in the first place.
I would argue that if you listen to the way that they construct their songs, guitar lines, chord progressions, lyrics and arrangements that this was the case from the get-go right up to today. The only things that they have flexed with extensively over the decades is the amount of distortion used on the guitars, the vocal style of Nick Holmes (ranging as it does to full on death gargle to New Wave clean and every shade in between and back again over the years) and the relative contribution of the keyboards and where they sit in the mix. If you don’t believe me, track down a live recording of a song from that contentious period and watch them play it in a more metal style, and what you get is something that could have come from any other period of their existence.
For every fan that resents the three or so albums when they experimented with a lighter overall sound, there are those that love it, and personally I far prefer it when the vocal style is less death metal for the plain and simple reason that I like to actually listen to lyrics and Holmes actually has a pretty damn good voice. With PL now firmly back with their heavier roots, there’s a void where the material from the turn of the millennium can sit, because although you can play those songs with Metal tropes and make it work, it doesn’t always go back the other way quite so well.
So here we are in 2023 with the pair sipping back into their own and Paradise Lost’s history with a spin-off project named after that album that everyone claims to hate (whether they have actually listened to it or the ones either side of it or not), but which musically is more directly attributable to early goth and new wave electronica than PL ever were during their experimental phase of 20 odd years ago. It started as a lockdown project to keep Macintosh sane, but given their shared history and strength of songwriting partnership, Holmes got looped in.
On the surface it’s influenced by the album that spawned the name, but Host the album is the result of five people working together and this is just Holmes and Macintosh, with the latter presumably programming and playing everything from scratch. Consequently, it’s more 80’s electronica and new wave than anything from their main band, but that’s no bad thing as it proves that despite the backlash the pair could have done much more with the format given time and a bit of support. With Paradise Lost firmly back in heavier gargly territory and Host now signed as an act in their own right by Nuclear Blast, I think we can expect more experimentation to come from these two.
Musically the songs benefit from an extra 20 years of song-writing experience and recording technology, but you can still tell that it’s the same pair under the hood despite the overall restrained sound, and when the sound rocks out that little bit, more such as Hiding From Tomorrow or closer I Ran, then the signature writing style that underpins everything they touch comes to the fore. It’s not the longest piece of work at forty-two minutes, but I am more than happy that this project can co-exist side by side with the current Paradise Lost approach. Rather than take the best of both worlds, they’ve split them in two, but since both approaches have their fans, there’s plenty of room in the marketplace. 8/10
Stöner - Boogie To Baja (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Matt Bladen]
Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri are probably best known as two of the four founders of desert rock originators Kyuss, after Kyuss returned into the the haze of Sky Valley, the members have all been very busy with several other projects, a lot of which are very incestuous with the four members all jamming with each other under the overarching banner of psych/stoner/desert rock.
Musically the songs benefit from an extra 20 years of song-writing experience and recording technology, but you can still tell that it’s the same pair under the hood despite the overall restrained sound, and when the sound rocks out that little bit, more such as Hiding From Tomorrow or closer I Ran, then the signature writing style that underpins everything they touch comes to the fore. It’s not the longest piece of work at forty-two minutes, but I am more than happy that this project can co-exist side by side with the current Paradise Lost approach. Rather than take the best of both worlds, they’ve split them in two, but since both approaches have their fans, there’s plenty of room in the marketplace. 8/10
Stöner - Boogie To Baja (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Matt Bladen]
Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri are probably best known as two of the four founders of desert rock originators Kyuss, after Kyuss returned into the the haze of Sky Valley, the members have all been very busy with several other projects, a lot of which are very incestuous with the four members all jamming with each other under the overarching banner of psych/stoner/desert rock.
The more straight laced stoner of...well Stöner are a power trio with Bjork and Oliveri joining drummer Ryan Güt (who is in Bjork's solo band), they have released two previous studio albums and live release, their latest offering is this EP entitled Boogie To Baja, and it focuses on the early days of what the stoner scene would emerge from with nods to New York and San Francisco scenes, Boogie To Baja is inspired by The Ramones, Blue Cheer, The Stooges and MC5. The sort of EP that brings groovy, psychedelic meanderings as well as punchy punk rock, it's a trio who lock in tight, their interplay having been perfected on the live stage.
After a reinterpretation of their Stöner Theme (Baja Version), City Kids starts the boogie properly with some breezy Grateful Dead jams as the bad trip of Night Tripper Vs No Brainer encroaches on your conciseness with it's slow, blissful fuzz. As It Ain't Free blasts with snotty CBGB fodder, the EP ends with the instrumental title track which lets it's freak flag fly. More than a stopgap Boogie To Baja is a groovy little number from this highly acclaimed trio. 7/10
King Abyss - Snake Oil (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
King Abyss - Snake Oil (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
King Abyss, have a lot right with them, however this debut album does a few things that mean the listening experience is not as good as I'd hoped. Lyrically Snake Oil is driven by the injustice and how we are manipulated by corporations and the government. It's brimming with bile and aggression, which unfortunately adds to it's downfall a little.
Musically pitched between Megadeth and modern acts such as Sylosis, the riffs are born out of thrash with some groove metal on songs like Fear The Dead or Eyes Always Watching, the lead guitar playing stand out with a lot of Mustaine/Friedman solo sections. That's about where I run out of positives I'm afraid, the songs have some dynamism, with acoustics employed across the record but vocally it's as one dimensional as it's just the same growls over and over again, the only time it shifts is when there's some clean vocals but they're not that great either.
Snake Oil is also an album that attempts to emulate some of the best and brightest but don't quite hit that sweet spot. For example the final instrumental Nibiru wants to be Orion but never becomes anything than a slow dirge with a few shifts. Maybe it is just me but King Abyss are a band who don't do much for me at all. 5/10
Musically pitched between Megadeth and modern acts such as Sylosis, the riffs are born out of thrash with some groove metal on songs like Fear The Dead or Eyes Always Watching, the lead guitar playing stand out with a lot of Mustaine/Friedman solo sections. That's about where I run out of positives I'm afraid, the songs have some dynamism, with acoustics employed across the record but vocally it's as one dimensional as it's just the same growls over and over again, the only time it shifts is when there's some clean vocals but they're not that great either.
Snake Oil is also an album that attempts to emulate some of the best and brightest but don't quite hit that sweet spot. For example the final instrumental Nibiru wants to be Orion but never becomes anything than a slow dirge with a few shifts. Maybe it is just me but King Abyss are a band who don't do much for me at all. 5/10