Green Carnation - The Acoustic Verses

Album Review + Download

Date of Release: January 2006
Country: Sweden
Genre: Folk Rock/Acoustic Prog-Rock

Background Information: Green Carnation is a group which draw my attention a year ago, in quite an interesting way; It's members are known people in the metal and black metal scene of Norway, and it's founding member and writer of most of the music is an ex-Emperor member. Initially, the band played doom/death metal, but as it progressed, now it plays some form of progressive rock with metal tendencies. But their latest album was a complete turn from what they've even done before: a completely acoustic album which carries the name: "The Acoustic Verses".

Review: The album starts with the sweet song titled 'Sweet Leaf', a folk rock song which progresses normatively. Then you'll find 'The Burden Is Mine... Alone' which presents a beautiful, simple singer-songwriter styled song which only includes acoustic guitar and singing. Sordal's voice is very soft and stroking on most of this album, he's clean and sometimes backuped by backing vocals, and even reminiscent of Camel's Andrew Latimer singing - thoughtful and deep, yet peaceful.
The album's epic song '9-29-045' (Yes, that's the song title), is a long (over 15 minutes), contemplative, laid-back song which progresses through three parts: first and third are regular tempo and full, containing vocals, and the middle part is somekind of a quiet, delirious, instrumental interlude.
One song that caught my attention was 'Childs Play Part 3', a short instrumental piece which only contain some moog/guitar sounding instrument playing something that sounds very classical, while being sad and bitter. 'High Tide Waves' is another epic song, a lot shorter than the first one. It combines gentle guitar playing and a powerful 'chorus' with drums and powerful vocals, which somewhat reminded me Ian Gillan of Deep Purple. And what I enjoyed most in this song, was this Opeth sounding clean electric guitar solo in the last minutes of the song.
The remaining two songs, 'Alone' and 'Maybe?', didn't caught my attention so much - Alone is a very folky song which of you might like, and Maybe? is much more darker, yet I find it boring a bit.
Now, after I'm done telling you about every single song, I will try to describe the album as a whole. Well, it is certainly interesting. Not very unique, but still original. It draws much influence from old 70's prog rock such as Camel and Deep Purple - as well as from the indie/folk rock rock scene too - bands such as Radiohead, Coldplay and Sigur Ros have large influence on this album, and don't argue me about that. And why is it so interesting? Well, mostly because of the fact that the songwriter for this album is no other than the former bassist for Emperor, the uncompromised, primitive influential black metal band. It is really interesting to see what's on that guy's mind except for blast beats and burned guitar amps. So yes, basically it's a folk rock album - but the thinking and the writing is different - it came out of a metalhead's mind.

Score: 8.5 out of 10. It is an interesting album, very peaceful and laid back, atmospheric. The only problem is that it's a little repetitive and monotonous.

Track Listing:

1. "Sweet Leaf" – 4:38
2. "The Burden is Mine... Alone" – 3:15
3. "Maybe?" – 5:02
4. "Alone" – 3:43
5. "9-29-045" – 15:29
6. "Childs Play Part 3" – 3:32
7. "High Tide Waves" – 7:49

Total Length: 43:32

Here is a DOWNLOAD LINK for the album.

Riverside: Sweet melancholy from Poland.

Good morning!

I'd like to introduce you a band that some of you might not have heard about. I heard about these guys a year and a half ago, they hail from Poland and they're called Riverside. They remained pretty much anonymous outside the progressive rock scene.

One thing about Riverside is that they combine a lot of musical influences: mainly progressive rock and progressive metal, but they also combine elements of jazz, ambient and electronica in specific moments. Second thing about Riverside, is that they have this very unique sound which makes them who they are. Their sound is very natural, live, and yet very atmospheric and full of touch.

For those of you who insist to know 'what does they sound like', they draw strong influences from Pink Floyd, Opeth, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, and Anathema.
The band released only two full length albums and a few singles and EPs, but their next album, 'Rapid Eye Movement' will be out soon at October 2007.

For me - Riverside mean a lot of things. They have progressive yet catchy songs, and a very melancholic/romantic mood. Some of their songs actually symbolize events and periods in my life, because of the powerful emotion they have.

So, let us be more specific: Personally, I prefer their first album, Out Of Myself, but their second album, 'Second Life Syndrome' is excellent to as well as their Single '02 Panic Room'. By the way, for those of you who like Pink Floyd's album 'Wish you were here', this Single has a surprise for you.

Here's a video of Riverside performing at the Masstival. Short, but that's the bes quality I found:



Here is a download link including their new Single '02 Panic Room' plus three selected songs from previous albums.

Katatonia - Last Fair Deal Gone Down

Album Review + Download.

Date Of Release: May 2001
Country: Sweden
Genre: Doom Metal / Alternative Rock

Background Information: Katatonia is a Swedish band, formed in the early 90s. At first they played Doom/Death Metal - while mixing death grunts and clean singing style, as seen on their debut, 'Dance of December Souls'. At some point, vocalist 'Blackheim' (Anders Nyström) lost his ability to growl, so then Opeth vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt was asked to growl on their next album, 'Brave Murder Day'. But since their next album, 'Discouraged Ones', they metamorphed their music into a very unique style. I would define it as depressive rock, but it can also be considered as a mixture of Doom Metal, Alternative Rock and even a little bit of progressiveness. This album, Last Fair Deal Gone Down, is their best album in my opinion, since their musical metamorphosis.

Review: Some people might disagree with me, but I think that this album is Katatonia's peak as musicians. I know that Viva Emptiness is considered to be their best rock album, but this one's a very emotional and sentimental one too.
First of all, it is so eclectic: it combines elements of prog (in songs such as 'Chrome'), elements of industrial (as seen on 'We Must Bury You'), and it even includes a radio-friendly song - 'Teargas'. All of the above are done while maintaining a high level of depression that's reminiscent of bands such as Anathema, Opeth, and even Muse. The atmosphere is really dark and suicidal - this album is not recommended for mentally ill people - and if you are mental, well, try to keep yourself away from knives.
The production and the sound is not 100% perfect, it's not the lab-clean sound of Porcupine Tree nor the swiss watch exact sound of Dream Theater; But still it is of good quality, and it fits the atmosphere so good that I wouldn't change a thing about it.
Some of the songs are repetetive - in a good way. Katatonia know how to find a good riff/musical idea and repeat it without letting you getting bored. It is mostly a slow, heavy and serious album, it has no happy moments or optimistic. It is mostly pasimistic, nihilstic, and everything else that sounds intimidating and ends with 'tic'.

Score: 9.5 out of 10. Spectacular album, recommended for both metalheads and proggers.

Track Listing:

1. Dispossession - 5:36
   
2. Chrome - 5:14
   
3. We Must Bury You - 2:50
   
4. Teargas - 3:23
   
5. I Transpire - 5:56
   
6. Tonight's Music - 4:20
   
7. Clean Today - 4:23
   
8. The Future Of Speech - 5:40
   
9. Passing Bird - 3:38
   
10. Sweet Nurse - 3:57
    
11. Don't Tell A Soul - 5:42

Total Length: 50:39

Download with Rapidshare.

Hello Everybody.

My name is Jonathan Bleak. I live in Israel nowadays. This is my music blog. This blog will concentrate on unpopular music usually, such as Progressive Rock, Heavy Metal, Post-Rock, Avantgarde, and more.

Sometimes I will also include quality mainstream music. Not everything that's mainstream is crap, after all. This blog will include: Reviews, Opinions, Full Downloads, Recommendations, Videos, Music News, and More.

I am a musician too, I record at my home 'studio' music that I compose. Sometimes, if you guys don't mind, I will upload something of my own for you to listen to.

Hope you all enjoy and discover new adventurous and spectacular music,
Jonathan Bleak.