Defending Metal

Defender are putting an EP out called WWIII pretty soon. It is a side project featuring current and former members of power metal bands like Cellador and Desire to Destroy (Listed over in the links section if you want to check them out).

Below is a preview of the upcoming EP if you want to get an idea of what Defender sounds like.

 

The New Shred

Shred; Verb. To cut something into teeny, tiny pieces. Useful in offices for reducing clutter and disposing of sensitive information, and for making nachos. For guitarists though, shred has a whole different meaning. It describes the subgenre, or maybe subculture (?) in rock and heavy metal music where a guitarist pushes his technical expertise and playing speeds into very fast tempos.

Shred has been around in many forms for a long, long time, taking its cue from classical music. Composers like Bach and players like Paganini laid the ground work hundreds of years ago, making music that crystallized the techniques and laid the veins which future musicians would mine ceaselessly. Long after these men maid their mark, rock and roll was invented in 20th century America. While rock was a blend of blues, gospel and country, and it would largely stay that way at its core, rock music was wildly popular amongst laymen for its rebellious image and musicians for its fluidity. The sparseness of the blues begged for wide interpretation and improvisation.

Gradually rock musicians influenced by classical music attempted to graft the techniques and motifs of classical composers to rock. The earliest tinkerers with this included Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple, Rainbow), Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Steve Howe (Yes) and others. Shred as it’s known today though was recognized as a unique entity in the later 70s and early 80s, due primarily to three guitarists: Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhodes (Ozzy Osbourne) and Yngwie Malmsteen. All three had classical training in their backgrounds, and each integrated classical music and frenetic tempos into their form and technique. From those three a storm erupted and it dominated a whole decade of heavy metal music.

What a mid-80s shredder looked like

The 1980s are primarily associated with new wave and preening hair metal bands. What the latter brought to the table though were stable after stable of talented, technically proficient guitarists. Names like Reb Beach (Winger), Vito Bratta (White Lion), and George Lynch (Dokken) were all over magazines and their songs played on numerous radio stations. They had MTV’s captive attention and this huge presence inspired talent scouts to seek out other teased-haired, spandex-clad shredders. Thus names like Steve Vai went from being underground, go-to pro players to household names, and lesser names like Vinnie Moore and Michael Lee Firkins achieved cult status. Saturation was as fast as these players’ guitar solos, and by the early 1990s, America welcomed iconoclastic rock bands that shattered hair metal’s dominance and drove the shredders back to their woodsheds.

The 90s for heavy metal was actually a watershed period in some ways, for while shredders had to get day jobs as laborers and guitar instructors to feed themselves, shred wasn’t technically dead. The early 90s was the zenith of Florida’s death metal movement, while the Nordic countries spawned a litany of movements in metal music, like black, death, melodic death, folk, and power metal. Not all but many bands in these various waves had guitarists directly inspired by Vai, Van Halen, Joe Satriani and others, along with a list of classical composers like Beethoven, Bach and Tchaikovsky. So while the airwaves were dominated by alternative and punk (Which had been the underground in the 80s), metal was underground music and in that environment it reaped great creative profits. The flame was still carried for shred, the bearers just didn’t wear stone washed jeans and permed hair anymore.

What a shredder looks like today

It was the 00′s which saw shred resurface in public consciousness. Heavy metal, punk and hardcore punk had been in bed together so many times they had produced offspring such as post-hardcore, metalcore, deathcore and others. Names like Killswitch Engage, Terror, Atreyu, Norma Jean, Trivium and others featured a wide variety of guitarists who weren’t afraid that yes, they actually like Judas Priest, and even a little Poison from time to time. The stage was set for a shred comeback. It just needed a catalyst, which it got in the form of Guitar Hero videogames. These games were packed with classic rock from the 70s and 80s, right when the first wave of shred crested. This renewed public awareness of fast-paced, highly-technical playing was seized upon by musical instrument makers, guitar magazines and last but definitely not least, the internet. Youtube is a hub of guitarists offering everything from free lessons for beginners to advanced players, to live concerts, covers of rock and metal classics, demos and videos of guys just showing off.

It is now fairly common to see publications like Guitar World and Revolver featuring one of these modern day shredders. They often cite their love for Iron Maiden, Yngwie Malmsteen and Megadeth, but now include groups like Death, Emperor, Mayhem, and even Pantera in their list of influences. Modern shredders are possibly even more concerned (if that’s possible) with technique, much more focused on tone (a subjective category on making their guitars sound as good as possible), and not so worried about fashion as their forebears.

This has brought to the fore new names garnering cult followings. Today easily some of the most well-known new shredders include Gus G (Firewind/Ozzy Osbourne), Chris Broderick (Megadeth), Alexi Laiho (Children of Bodom), Corey Beaulieu and Matt Heafy (Trivium), Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel (Atreyu), and Synester Gates and Zacky Vengeance (Avenged Sevenfold). They regularly incorporate similar licks and techniques seen on records past, while using them in different ways to develop their own sounds. Essentially shred has come full circle, but is not as omnipresent as it was in the 80s, meaning that a backlash could likely coexist in peace with these hair metal-loving headbangers.

That about sums up the whole lineage of shred and where it stands today. But it’s hard to describe a sound. So here are a few clips of contemporary shredding.

Chris Broderick:

Rusty Cooley:

Alexi Laiho:

Gus G.:

Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal:

Buckethead:

 

Another Page from the Book of Heavy Metal

You know what’s great news? Anything about Dream Evil putting out a new album, that’s good news. I just read on Blabbermouth today that Dream Evil has just put out its first video for its new album, In the Night.

If you’ve never listened to Dream Evil before, you should. They’re a lot of fun. Dream Evil was formed around famed Gothenberg scene producer Fredrik Nordstrom, who wanted badly to play in a melodic, power metal band. Dream Evil was initially built around his rhythms and Gus G‘s lead guitar work, with Nick Night’s operatic vocals out front and a rotating cast of drummers and bassists laying down the bottom end. Gus left to concentrate on Firewind and play with Ozzy Osbourne eventually, but Dream Evil have soldiered on. If you like stuff such as Iron Maiden, Dio, Helloween, or really any metal band from the 1980s, Dream Evil are like them, but turned up a little bit, thanks to Nordstrom’s prowess in the recording studio. They also have an openness about their image and lyrics’ cheesiness, and aren’t a bit ashamed by it. It’s nice to find something out there that isn’t trying to be ironic or satiric.

Anyway here is the new video, “Bang Your Head.”

 

Thor’s Day Continues

Promotional concept released for The Mighty Thor. Thor is a Marvel comics character based upon the mythological god of thunder. By day Thor is Dr. Donald Blake, a paraplegic, but at will turns into Mj0lnir-wielding, lightning-commanding Thor.

The Thor movie is part of a planned movie cosmology that will combine with the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and Captain America into an Avengers movie, set to come out in 2012.

This picture might not be the final costume design but chances are this is viral marketing and what we’re seeing is legit.

From io9

 

How to Tell if You are a Music Nerd

1. When you listen to a song you like, you don’t just enjoy it aesthetically. You also think about which lineup of that band recorded it, how many members of the group are dead now, and if the remastered version will finally put the high hats where you think they should be in the mix.

2. You know the difference between Boss and Z-Vex pedals, and can carry on a 2 hour conversation about the differences between the two.

3. You prefer dead formats to current ones, though you are constantly forced to use the current ones because dead formats, like vinyl, are obsolete for a reason.

4. You actually believe there’s a difference between Monster cables and other cables, and have spent time proving this to others.

5. You own 7″ singles made after 1988.

6. You have had arguments, on multiple occasions, about whether or not Rush is a great band or the greatest band, or the shittiest band ever.

7. Your Youtube searches for Michael Manring do not have any relation to a different bassist that played the Super Mario Bros theme, and you are in fact looking for his live performance videos.

8. You think Yngwie Malmsteen is an egotistical shredder, but have no problem when Michael Hedges did the same thing on an acoustic guitar – in fact you considered it pure artistry.

9. You believe being a better songwriter and more heartfelt musician requires being terrible at your instrument.

10. You also buy into the myth that getting off the junk makes musicians lose their creativity, and have defended this point multiple times on the internet.

11. You look at record stores as the last stalwarts of dying culture, not as atrophying business models.

12. In the same breath as #11, you never actually go to record stores and buy anything (Except for vinyl), because 99% of your music was downloaded.

13. And relating to both #11 and #12, you think the RIAA are a group of untethered, corporate fascists, without exception, no matter how many terabytes of music you stole.

14. You collect only specific brands or types of instruments – or you hoard all kinds.

15. You know what a tube amp is and can explain why it is sonically superior to solid state, in spite of its antiquated technology and growing maintenance costs, and refuse all arguments to the contrary about “personal taste.”

16. If you notice a drummer using triggers, you first of all know what triggers are, and you look down on that drummer for using them.

17. You have admonished someone with the word, “poseur,” on an internet message board.

18. You know the differences amongst emo, screamo, post-emo, post-hardcore, crust-punk, post-punk, metalcore and deathcore, and can explain why no band calling itself by these labels actually belongs to any of these genres.

19. You scoff when someone tells you they like jazz, and then tells you they like Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” period and Diana Krall.

20. You claim “real country,” was the time period when corporate, big label acts like George Jones, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson ruled the airwaves and not corporate, big label acts like Toby Keith, Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss.

 

Cardinal Acts of Metal Douche-baggery

I love metal. I’m sure some who read this blog do too, and for those who don’t really like it, I hope you at least take something away from Lobo and maybe try out a few metal bands, and even like some of them. That’s really the noblest thing I could possibly aim for with a blog like this. Metal is still a misunderstood form of music, but often that’s metalheads’ own fault. The public perception of metalheads runs from that of us being drunken dimwits to church-burning psychotics. Sadly those extremes really are metalheads, but it neglects the many people who hold down successful careers, raise loving families and just really like metal.

The people who hold everything back are that vocal minority, the ones who can’t help but say stupid crap, go overboard with their looks or are just socially inept, but also very forthright about it, to the point of making others want to slink away slowly. Their actions and comments reflect a disconnect with level-headed discourse, and make the whole metal culture look bad. To those douchebags, I say knock it off. There are several cardinal acts of douche-baggery that limit metal’s appeal and ability to artistically grow, and this one is perhaps the worst.

Subgenre and nomenclature ultra-librarians. There are too many metal subgenres and the truth is, all bleed into each other in some form or another, and to argue that one band or one style is “pure,” is subjective. There are people who take that to extremes, and exhaustively categorize, analyze and classify what is essentially an artform, which is subject to interpretation from each and every listener. Even A.N.U.S., a group dedicated to this purpose, basically breaks metal down into about five basic genres, and makes it pretty easy to understand each one and how they relate to each other. However, some guys go much, much further, which is where your neo-black-post-grindcore labels come from, and the annoying, tedious nerd fights that occur on message boards. And if you claim to be a metal fan and just happen to classify Morbid Angel as thrash metal instead of death metal – look out! Nerd rage will descend upon you (Or is Morbid Angel just a speed/death band? Or are they grind/death? See? This is what these douchebags actually think about.).

Real-life example of this douchebaggery:  “Wow, terrible article is terrible. Considering the author’s purported concluding premise is that metalheads are moving past the cliche of being stereotypical dimwits, he certainly doesn’t help by butchering metal/subgenre history (that is easily found in the internet nowadays).” – said by a user on Fark.com in a thread about metal.

The truth is this about genres and subgenres: NOBODY CARES, except for that minority of nitwits. These were all just labels put on the music by other people to make it appealing to the masses. Are there substantive differences between Slayer and Cannibal Corpse? Sure, in that one sings about bodies being stitched together and ripping themselves apart, and that the other sings about bodies being ripped apart and eaten. That’s the difference. Cannibal Corpse’ music is technically different, often more complex than Slayer’s, but it’s splitting hairs to sit around and define it and then criticize others when they don’t accept your terminology. It’s also ridiculous to put down one’s own peers because they haven’t sat around memorizing your dogma.

The whole game of defining genres and then rigidly adhering to made-up rules about them is creatively limiting. The best metal bands hop around and blend together multiple musical influences anyway, making it even harder to classify them, so it’s useless to try. Still other great metal bands come along, adopt the stylings of a certain genre, but do it in a way that changes the stodgy critics’ notions of that genre. Xasthur, for example, uses the same lo-fi production, facepaint and staccato guitars as old black metal bands, but the music uses more droning and even looser song structures. That’s black metal enough for most people, but I guarantee you somewhere a metal nerd is spitting out his Mountain Dew at the mere suggestion that Xasthur is black metal. Which is precisely what I’m talking about in a nutshell. It doesn’t matter what Xasthur is anymore than it matters to parse up Morbid Angel or any other metal band’s music. The application of dark themes and imagery is near-universal, just about all of those bands wear black, and the music is based around guitar, drums, bass, vocals and sometimes keyboards. It just goes to show you can do a lot of stuff with those instruments. Sure labeling helps you find it in the record store, but beyond that it doesn’t serve much purpose. Even the terminology I’ve used in my own articles has been to clarify and describe the music I’m writing about to people who haven’t heard it, because I realize this blog is on the internet and can be read by anyone. What I would use to describe a band’s style might not be what another uses to paint the picture.

The argument about music shouldn’t be about what it looks like or what it’s called, but about whether it’s good or not. Even that is up to one’s own point of view, but at least it is broad enough so a constructive discussion can come from it, and you can even – gasp! – encourage people who’ve never tried it to give it a go. The attitude of exclusion and dogma is against the very rebellion metal encourages in the lyrics and images of thousands of bands, the rejection of social stigmas and standards. It does no good to artistry or metal itself to then replace those boundaries with ones of its own. Hence this form of douche-baggery is guilty of trying to stifle creativity, stunting positive communal growth and worst of all, taking the fun out of everything. Which is really the hallmark of all douche-baggery in life. So again to you perpetrators of this heinous act of joy-killing, I say get a life and try to actually enjoy things that are fun, because going through life with a penchant to suck the joy out of things is too tiring.

 

Let Me Tell You of a Desire to Destroy

I don’t know if you have taken a look at the links over to the left side of the page, but if you did, you’d notice one labeled “Desire to Destroy.” I’ve actually mentioned the band in different ways here, like how vocalist Mike Smith is going to Castle Donington, but that doesn’t do justice for the whole group.

Desire to Destroy are basically what Metal Blade act Cellador used to be, because well, most of them used to be in that band back before Cellador became Oprah famous on the heavy metal scene (Okay not Oprah famous, more like Oprah’s friend Gayle Williams famous, but whatever, fame is fame.). The musicians take the power metal genre from a decidedly American perspective, as in they mix in more thrash, and go with a straight-forward approach. There are no keyboards, the riffs aren’t as inflected with classical music motifs, and falsetto is only used sparingly. Iced Earth is a great example of what I mean here, and as far as Midwestern power metal goes, Desire to Destroy are right in that same vein. The occasional growl or scream threatens to put D2D in Killswitch Engage territory at times, but mostly it’s right smack dab in that classic, melodic metal category. Think of this band like Iron Maiden were in their lean, mean Paul Di’Anno days. If you can get into that, you can get into Desire to Destroy.

Their whole EP is right here if you want to try it yourself. OmahaNightOutGuide was so nice as to film a live clip of a recent performance.

 

Unsung Guitar Hero: Criss Oliva

Last time we took a look at Tommy Bolin, journeyman fusion/blues/rock virtuoso that had tons of prodigious talent and managed a very impressive resume before his very unfortunate demise. This time let’s profile another lost, supremely talented name to rock guitar whose own life was tragically cut short.

Criss Oliva was born in Pompton Plains, New Jersey, and was the younger brother of Jon Oliva. Their family and they moved about the country before settling in Florida, which is where both Oliva brothers’ careers began. Criss was mostly self-taught, intensively figuring out the notes to his favorite songs, and improvising when he couldn’t crack a part. The early years saw him playing in local Florida bands, but in 1978 he joined up with brother Jon to form Avatar, the direct precursor to the Olivas’ most famous band, Savatage.

Avatar spent the early 80s playing Clearwater and Tampa area clubs, performing a mixture of hard rock covers and occasional originals. Their only output from this time period are an EP and cuts on some compilation tapes, notably The YNF Pirate Tape by the 95YNF radio station. Both are out of print, but mp3 clips and full tracks are available on Savatage’s website. They are raw versions of future Savatage releases.

In 1983 Avatar had to change its name due to copyright issues (Another band owned the name). Combining “savage” with “avatar,” resulted in Savatage, the name that stuck. Criss was the sole guitarist during this and through much of his tenure with the band, and so composed all the guitar parts to Sirens and The Dungeons are Calling, Savatage’s first and second albums. Both are notable for having fast, speed metal-esque tempos and being full of bluster, along with Jon Oliva’s then-powerful screech – a stark contrast to latter day albums Wake of Magellan and Dead Winter Dead.

Criss’ playing from this period is full of the hallmarks of early 80s shred. His style reflects a clear Eddie Van Halen influence, what with an application of the pentatonic scale, pinch harmonics, rapid trilling and whammy divebombs. Oliva came out around the same time as many of the top names of the 80s metal movement, such as Randy Rhoades, Yngwie Malmsteen and George Lynch. He stood out from the pack by having a tone with a lot of top-end presence and thick midrange. His playing was also much more aggressive compared to his peers in that period. His biggest weakness, and this was true of the band at this phase, was a lack of direction and ideas.  “Holocaust,” track 3 off Sirens, is a ripping track that shows a glimpse of what Savatage would be later on:

Savatage pressed forward, got signed to major label Atlantic Records and put out their third disc, Power of the Night, in 1985. The band’s still got one foot in speed metal and the other in glam at this point, matching dark lyrics like “Necrophilia,” with lusty rockers like, “Hard for Love.” Criss’ writing and soloing reflects much the same dichotomy, and retains the same aggressive nature. “Unusual” shows the mixture well with the slower, Quiet Riot-like chord bashing and chugging complimenting the dark undertones the band showed on its two earlier albums:

Savatage’s “What were they thinking?!” moment came in 1987. Struggling to find an audience with the MTV generation and make headway amongst the dozens of bands pouring out of LA by that point, the group made the decision to go fully commercial with Fight for the Rock. It features a flaccid parental advisory warning and the band in full cheese-rock mode, raising the American flag on the cover. Being one of the group’s main auteurs, blame for this partially falls at Criss’ feet. His playing, like the songs, are not inspired, very cliche’ and aimed straight at typical teenage ears, who roundly ignored it. Fight for the Rock was a step back for the band and for the rest of their existence pretended it didn’t exist. “Crying for Love” for example finds Savatage downright aping Dokken:

After taking a thrashing from both fans and critics, Savatage and Criss Oliva needed to come up with the goods in a big way. By 1987 they had been floundering, producing glimmers of promise on their first 3 records, and then blowing it to hell with their 4th. Deliver they did with Hall of the Mountain King. This is the record that advanced Savatage away from their half-speed metal/half-heavy metal wavering, and buried Fight for the Rock in the dust. Mountain King begins the band’s most commercially successful period and creative apex with both Oliva bros at the helm. It’s hard to find a dud on the album, for it starts out maniacally with “24 Hours Ago,” rolls right into “Beyond the Doors of the Dark,” has the catchy “Strange Wings,” and the piece de resistance, the album’s title track:

Hall of the Mountain King shows Criss’ playing reaching a new level at last. He branched out, melding with the neoclassical movement via the “Prelude to Madness” instrumental, pushing his technique forward with the title track’s solo, and putting the capstone on the band’s speed metal flirtations with “White Witch.” His predilection for pentatonic theatrics is still there, but his whammy bar work outs get downright primal at times. His tone sounds great on this record too, showing the producer (Paul O’Neill) knew how to capture his sound in the studio. This also marked the band’s first work with O’Neill, who went on to be a de facto member in the future, resulting in fruitful collaborations with the Oliva bros.

The follow up to Mountain King was the impressive and transitional Gutter Ballet. Here the band’s and Criss’ playing reached for greater, emotional and more theatrical heights. For singer and brother Jon Oliva, this was a new level for songwriting and vocal performances. For guitarist Criss, it was the full realization of his style. The inventive, dexterous riffs that became a cornerstone of Savatage’s sound later on are firmly represented on Gutter Ballet for the first time. Criss’ solos are counterpoint to Jon’s howling, maddening vocals at the high points and reflect the moodiness of the low. On “When the Crowds Are Gone,” Criss takes a solo that evokes the drama of a Shakespearean tragedy. It is utterly eloquent in communicating its sadness, in only a way that fits within the burgeoning power metal and symphonic metal genres. Over the top? Sure, but tasteful and appropriate for the song all at the same time:

Sidenote – while Savatage had realized itself with Mountain King and was daring to take a leap with Gutter Ballet, it almost never happened, for in 1989 Oliva was offered the lead guitar gig in Megadeth. He turned it down, luckily for Savatage fans.

Another thing that should be noted is around Mountain King is when Criss started to work with a second guitarist, albeit on a touring-only basis. Chris Cafferey made his first of repeated associations with the Savatage camp, supporting them on tour in 1987-88, and appearing on Gutter Ballet as a fully-credited member. Cafferey was very much a sideman and subordinate to Criss at that time, but his later association with the group would feature him in a more upfront fashion.

If Mountain King brought the band back from the edge, and Gutter Ballet showed what they were capable of, the true homerun hit was Streets: A Rock Opera. This was Jon Oliva and Paul O’Neill’s theatrical vision for Savatage fully realized, and for a time Jon’s last appearance as lead vocalist. He wrung just about everything out of himself for this album, and Criss’ playing again provides the counterpart. More acoustic guitar usage shows up on this disc, as do synthesizers. This is the full-fledged transformation from the early Savatage to the power/symphonic metal Savatage, along with their first, true concept album – one of several they’d do later. Stand out tracks from Streets include “Jesus Saves,” “Tonight He Grins Again,” and “Heal My Soul:”

After Streets a major sea change took place in Savatage: Jon Oliva stepped down as vocalist and keyboardist, focused instead on side projects and a musical which has never been produced. Rumors abounded in this period that Jon had lost his voice, which wasn’t true. Criss soldiered on with new vocalist Zachary Stevens and longtime rhythm section Johnny Lee Middleton (bass) and Steve “Dr. Killdrums” Wacholz (drums). This lineup’s first release together was Edge of Thorns, which ratcheted down the theatrics and moved into moodier territory. Signs of maturity from Criss and co. are present here, for while the album isn’t limp or mundane, it is far mellower than its predecessor. O’Neill and Jon Oliva lurk in the background, handling songwriting and production duties. Criss playing on this album reflects emotional rather than technical growth, for he plays with more feeling than in the past and takes the path of least resistance on some tracks. Stevens’ markedly different voice no doubt contributes to the changed mood, as do the members’ passage through the 80s and entry into a different rock era.

Whatever could have come next will never be known, for tragically on October 17, 1993, at approximately 3:30 am, a driver crossed the median and struck Criss’ car head on, killing him and gravely injuring his wife, Dawn. Savatage wasn’t the same since; devastated, Jon Oliva remained in the band’s background for a few more years, with Handful of Rain and Dead Winter Dead only listing him as producer, contributing musician and songwriter. Post-Criss Savatage began a slow evolution into what is now Trans Siberian Orchestra, a band that is more an Oliva/O’Neill driven touring production that happens to feature rock musicians. If anything Criss was Savatage’s last tether to its past as a song-driven heavy metal band. Dead, Wake of Magellan (which saw Jon return to vocal duties and full time membership) and Poets and Madmen were each concept albums, loaded with classical and Broadway motifs, and took a backseat to the growing TSO enterprise. Savatage saw Chris Cafferey return and play a more upfront role, providing a foil to shredders-for-hire like Al Pitrelli and Jack Frost, and Testament axeman Alex Skolnick.

It’s never been the same though, not for Savatage, not for Jon Oliva, and not the end result in Trans Siberian Orchestra. Sure Pitrelli, Frost, Skolnick and others had more polish, more refined technique and great tone, but as songwriters they took a backseat to the Jon Oliva/Paul O’Neill tandem, and possessed none of Criss Oliva’s grit and aggression. What Criss had over all of the ‘Tage/TSO players was fire to his playing. Indeed the single greatest criticism to shredders like these is their playing is too perfect. Criss may have loaded up with fast runs and frenetic notes, but the way they were applied was with true feel and often taste. He seemed to know when to lay back, when to snarl and to make it all work and drive home the song’s message.

This absence is certainly not forgotten though: to this day, he is honored at TSO concerts and with Jon Oliva’s Pain, Jon’s post-Savatage hard rock outfit. These can be seen in performance of classic Savatage tunes, and display of the ubiquitous, white Charvel guitar with a red rose wrapped around it. Final Bell/Ghost in the Ruins, a live posthumous disc, features Criss’ incendiary playing, along with compilations From the Gutter to the Stage and the Best and the Rest. Occasionally TSO guitarists fashion their custom instruments in reference to Criss, with a rose graphic or through using Jackson Soloist guitars. In the broader scheme Criss’ work on those Savatage records laid the foundation for progressive, symphonic and power metal, subgenres that took shape in the late 80s-early 90s, and now feature long lists of bands, almost all of whom have taken something from a Savatage album with Criss on it.

 

Joe Stump for Your Tuesday Work Distraction

Joe Stump is a Berkeley instructor and veteran recording artist. He mainly does solo work but ventures out on occasion with power metal groups like HolyHell (An operatic, Nightwish/Evanescence-style band if that’s your thing). He’s a Strat-wielder like Yngwie Malmsteen and Ritchie Blackmore, from both of whom he borrows many influences.

Stump has many solo albums but today’s clip is from Virtuosic Vendetta. “The Dance of Kashani,” is a phrygian mode work-out with overt, Middle Eastern themes, not far removed from “Kashmir,” or Rainbows, “Gates of Babylon.” I happen to enjoy those kinds of motifs in metal music. Something about the tones in those scales, the rhythm and capabilities with drone notes really creates quite an atmosphere. Plus for a shredder Stump’s playing on this track is somewhat tasteful and well applied. It’s guitar-driven music so there’s going to be overdone showmanship, but for some reason on this song he lets the groove itself share some of the spotlight. Check it out, let me know what you think.

 

Sunday, Lazy Sunday

Blind Guardian gets chill (for them, at least) with “The Bard’s Song.” It’s not a bad day to sip on some mead if you got it.