life, and a little more

Eternal – War of Ages

Apr 26

metalman777audio, music christian metal, eternal, metalcore, war of ages, WOA No Comments

War Of Ages was one of the first introductions to a musical genre called “metalcore” that I actually loved.  I’ve been a huge metal and thrash fan since I was a teen-ager, but metalcore was a different beast.  The drum beat was fast, and there was lots of screaming, but the music was made of dissonance and melancholy, with no melody or guitar solos!

Enter War of Ages.  My first listen was 2006′s  Pride Of The Wicked, which to this day, is still in my top 10 best albums ever made.

Then came Fire From The Tomb, which was a re-recording of WOA’s first self titled album.  It was good, but no where near the caliber of Pride of the Wicked.  2008 saw the release of Arise And Conquer.  A fine musical piece, but still not as good as Pride of the Wicked.

Last week, WOA released Eternal, a brand new album!  How does it stack up to the fabled Pride of the Wicked?  Let us take a listen and compare notes.

01 Collapse
Pretty good song.  Starts out with the strong “dirty vocal” contrasted by the cleaner singing from As I Lay Dying’s lead singer.  Good fast pace…the guitar work is pretty good.

02 Desire
This song starts off like it is from Pride of the Wicked.   I gotta say that the growling vocal kind of grates on my ears…but wait, there’s the chorus with a nice change up.   Again, the melodic guitar is very good.

03 Failure
Starts with that layered melodic guitar, and the galloping fast drums are great.  A very good WOA song.

04 My Resting Place
War of Ages does doom metal?  oh wait, there’s the pickup.  Man, Leroy Hamp’s vocals are just a one note show.  I’d like just a little variety.  The guitar really shreds around the 1:41 mark!

05 Eternal
What?  Is that Sonny from P.O.D.?  Yep, sure is!  Very cool.  Sounds like a very heavy P.O.D. song.  Five songs into the album, and it all is starting to sound the same.  Not a good sign.

06 Indecision
There we go…some heavy chugga chugga chugga of the guitars sounds good to my ears.  Unfortunately,  Leroy Hamp can only scream in one note.  As a stand alone song, this is probably the best song on the record so far.

07 Lack Of Clarity
Huh?  Is this Dokken?  Gone is the ultra-heavy sound of guitar from the previous song.   If you listen to just the guitar, it doesn’t fit with the hardcore vocal.  I don’t like the sound of the chorus either.

08 The Fallen
I’m not sure what kind of song this is supposed to be.  Starts out super fast thrashy, then devolves into a very slow, sludgy doom metal beat.  The juxtaposition isn’t a good one.

09 Your Betrayal
These vocals are really starting to get on my nerves.  I hate to say it, but I’m not digging this album so much!

10 Instrumental
A soft instrumental ballad?  It’s good as far as instrumental songs go, but instantly forgettable as soon as the record is done.

Over all, I’d say that Eternal falls a long way short of Pride of the Wicked.  I honestly feel no compunction to listen to this album so much.  The vocals are all the same, even though there are two guest vocalists on the album.

Maybe I’m too picky!  Tell me what you think!

Why Can't I Love These Albums?

Aug 07

metalman777music heavy metal, into eternity, metalcore, music, war of ages No Comments

I’ve been very eagerly anticipating War of Ages new album, entitled “Arise & Conquer”.  This is their first release of new songs since 2006′s Pride of the Wicked (which is my top 5 all time top favorite albums ever created).

For some reason, I just can’t love Arise & Conquer.  The music is good and heavy, the vocals are passionate.  The album is well produced….but it just isn’t Pride of the Wicked!  I know that isn’t fair to the band, but Pride of the Wicked is so good that every other album they release will be judged against it.

Pride of the Wicked, one of the best metal albums ever produced!

Try as I might, this album just makes me need more.  I know it is stupid!  I think I’m going to have to listen to the album over and over to finally fall in love with it!

Track listing

1. “All Consuming Fire” – 4:13
2. “When Faith Turns to Ashes” – 1:51
3. “Through the Flames” – 4:17
4. “Salvation” – 3:28
5. “Sleep of Prisoners” – 3:59
6. “Wages of Sin” – 4:23
7. “Yet Another Fallen Eve” – 3:45
8. “Generational Curse” – 2:47
9. “The Awakening” – 3:59
10. “The Deception of Strongholds” – 4:05

Another band that I absolutely love is Into Eternity.  They have also released a new album, entitled The Incurable Tragedy. This is Into Eternity’s 5th studio album, and by all rights should be a great album.   Into Eternity has had that special ability to blend technical prog metal with the heaviness of speed/death metal.  Their previous four albums have all been fantastic.  Perfect work out music!

Like Arise & Conquer, I’m having a super hard time getting into The Incurable Tragedy.  It sounds like they have taken all the songs from their previous albums and mashed ‘em all together.  It is chaotic and sounds uninspired.

Track listing

1. “Prelude to Woe” ? 0:55
2. “Tides of Blood” ? 3:46
3. “Spent Years of Regret” ? 4:15
4. “Symptoms” ? 1:48
5. “Diagnosis Terminal” ? 3:31
6. “The Incurable Tragedy I” (September 21, 2006) ? 2:49
7. “Indignation” ? 3:58
8. “Time Immemorial” ? 4:15
9. “The Incurable Tragedy II” (November 10, 2006) ? 3:37
10. “A Black Light Ending” ? 3:33
11. “One Funeral Hymn for Three” ? 4:10
12. “The Incurable Tragedy III” (December 15, 2006) ? 2:20

I really want to love these albums.  Hopefully something will change.  Until then, I’ll just keep listening to the new Metal Church album, This Present Wasteland!  Talk about great heavy metal!!