Metal Allegiance - Metal Allegiance (2015)

Metal Allegiance is The Avenger team of heavy metal. Formed by four members, Mike Portnoy, David Ellefson, Alex Skolnick and unlikely team brain Mark Menghi. Menghi who? As Portnoy describe :

“Mark is kind of like the Brian Epstein of the band,” says Portnoy. “He's the behind-the-scenes mastermind who put the whole thing together. When we began this as a live covers thing, he was the guy moving the chess pieces. When we decided to make original music, he became a huge creative element as a songwriter, as well.”

Together, they unleashed  debut album with the same title, Metal Allegiance. Ten songs being released with multiple vocalist join the stage, ranging from D.Randall Blythe, Troy Sanders to Phillip Anselmo to Tim "The Ripper" Owen.

The first song "Gift Of Pain" is in death metal spirit. D. Randall Blythe delivered a "smooth" scream vocal. It is curious to see how David Ellefson find more spirit than his M-deth allegiance. Mike Portnoy surely has enough fun with all the prog - death drumming. "Let Darkness Fall" is more prog-stoner metal feel. It got some kick ass riff through all the song, best for a good headbanging session. A bass solo in the interlude is most welcome. "Can't Kill The Devil" is finally a song that can be identified with one of the member's band, Testament.  Chuck Billy sing in the style of Testament of the The Soul of Black era and the song also representing that particular nostalgic element. Actually, most of the song try to match the singer with his/her style, or vice versa. Most notable is "Triangulum" epic which is divided to three movements. The band recreate most precise the thrash metal era in '80, almost Metallica - Ride the Lightning vibes. It's in instrumental setting with many guest guitarist join the party. The last song dedicated to the master of heavy metal, Dio. It is "We Rock" with six vocalist trying to lift up the song.

Metal Allegiance is awesome album with lot of muscular guitar riffs in front. The main style is thrash metal, followed by some Portnoy progressive metal drumming. The good news also, they represent much of the older guys music, in other words the '80s style of thrash metal. Fans of each musician will not upset because their heroes are exactly playing in what they expected to. Fantastic album created by , who again, Mark Menghi!

Metal Harem class : ********* eight stars out of ten

Metal Allegiance - Metal Allegiance (2015)
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01. Gift Of Pain
Vocals: D. Randall Blythe
Lead & Rhythm Guitars: Alex Skolnick
Bass: David Ellefson
Drums: Mike Portnoy
Guest Guitars: Gary Holt

02. Let Darkness Fall
Vocals: Troy Sanders
Lead, Rhythm & Acoustic Guitars: Alex Skolnick
Bass: David Ellefson
Drums & Percussion: Mike Portnoy
Guest Bass: Mark Menghi & Rex Brown
Screams: D. Randall Blythe

03. Can't Kill The Devil
Vocals: Chuck Billy
Lead & Rhythm Guitars: Alex Skolnick
Bass: David Ellefson
Drums: Mike Portnoy
Guest Guitars: Phil Demmel & Andreas Kisser

04. Dying Song
Vocals: Philip H. Anselmo
Lead & Rhythm Guitars: Alex Skolnick
Bass: Mark Menghi
Drums: Mike Portnoy

05. Scars
Vocals: Mark Osegueda & Cristina Scabbia
Lead & Rhythm Guitars: Alex Skolnick
Bass: David Ellefson
Drums: Mike Portnoy

06. Destination: Nowhere
Vocals: Matthew K. Heafy
Lead & Rhythm Guitars: Alex Skolnick
Bass: David Ellefson
Drums: Mike Portnoy
Guest Guitars: Matthew K. Heafy

07. Wait Until Tomorrow
Vocals: Doug Pinnick & Jamey Jasta
Lead & Rhythm Guitars: Alex Skolnick
Bass: David Ellefson
Drums, Percussion & Additional Vocals: Mike Portnoy

8. Triangulum I. Creation Ii. Evolution Iii. Destruction (instrumental)
Lead & Rhythm Guitars: Alex Skolnick
Bass: David Ellefson
Drums: Mike Portnoy
Guest Guitars: Misha Mansoor, Ben Weinman, Charlie Benante, Phil Demmel, Matthew K. Heafy & Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal

09. Pledge Of Allegiance
Vocals: Mark Osegueda
Lead & Rhythm Guitars: Alex Skolnick
Bass: David Ellefson
Drums: Mike Portnoy
Guest Guitars: Charlie Benante, Gary Holt & Andreas Kisser

10. We Rock (Dio Cover) (Deluxe Edition Only)
Vocals: Mark Osegueda, Chris Jericho, Tim "Ripper" Owens, Alissa White-Gluz, Chuck Billy &
Steve "Zetro" Souza
Lead & Rhythm Guitars: Alex Skolnick
Bass: David Ellefson
Drums: Mike Portnoy
Guest Guitars: Andreas Kisser, Phil Demmel & Gary Holt

Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls (2015)

The big day has come. Iron Maiden the sixteenth is here. The Book of Souls is the ambitious title for it. It is the most philosophical album title, more than Brave New World, A Matter of Life and Death or so. How the album going to preserve the legacy of Iron Maiden, we shall examine one by one.

First the album cover. It is in the trend of nowadays. Eddie in a big grinning selfie. Let's give it 8/10 contribution score.

Now the first song come off is "If Eternity Should Fail". A big surprise where Bruce Dickinson started with the naration. What is this , you asked? Is Iron Maiden trying to compete with Metallica's Lulu. I say, dare you not thinking that way. This is just the few opening verses , it is quite okay also, if you listen a lot more often. The song-part is actually exactly Iron Maiden style from their current years. The familiar galloping drums and basses, the theme melody and choruses is easy to grab. 9/10

The next is "Speed of Light", already released as a single few weeks before the full album. It serves as usual album's best song to comply with fans. We got fresh song opener with the main riffs that kind of 'rock n roll', and a cowbell . Catchy tempo, three way guitar solos and unusually happy feeling for the song, make this everybody's favorite. 9/10

Then come of course the commanding bass line opener and acoustic guitar arpeggiating it. Bruce's lyric in the "Winter softly falling to the grouUUUnd....." is just perfect dictating to the rest of the song. "The Great Unknown" it is and a great third song to be heard. 8/10

Now, "The Red and the Black" is hard to grab at first. Steve's dark acoustic bass play is bringing us back to The X Factor's - Blood on the World's Hands reminiscence. The song is 13 minutes more. The first part got a huge hook into the Powerslaves era with its quick singing and galloping background. After five minutes the song switched to the second part , marked by "the red and the black ..." chorus, then the rest of the song dedicated to the guitarist to take on. Though it is can be shorter if not because of the repetition. 8/10

"When the River Runs Deep" is the only skip-able song. It is offered not much except the great Bruce Dickinson voices over some predictable structure. 6/10

Rather than that, "The Book of Souls" closed the first CD with 10 minutes arrangement. Same format, two parts, the first one is the best part because when Iron Maiden seriously matching the lyric to the music, it will also good. The second parts is the "improvisation", just to show that the companion still able to jam over 5 minutes excitement. 8/10

"Death or Glory" opened up the 2nd CD with a blaze, and this one quite straight forward, something that we always want Iron Maiden to do more often. 8/10

"Shadows of the Valley" is not bad either, the song remind us to many familiar tunes, so nothing surprising as per now. 7/10

Coming from Tears of the Dragon to "Tears of a Clown" is huge lap, but of course both are also light years away differences in context. The shortest song in the package, straight forward and nothing to complaint. As bonuses, the guitars solos see all guitarist nailed up each with different styles. 7/10

"The Man of Sorrows" is the second last song, intro summoned up the Children of the Damn vibes. But do we listen rarity here where Bruce's voice kind of struggling?  As the matter of fact, with many may questioned this, the record was done before Bruce got into his medical problem. 7/10

The finale of all, certainly "Empire of the Clouds". This is by far the most breakthrough song in Iron Maiden entire 30 years catalog. The intro is in pentatonic scale, melodious exotic theme. Bruce is playing the piano and a violin is the main leading voice. Grandeur built up so far due to this new experiment. This is the track need to be taken seriously, because rather relied on the same old music resources, Iron Maiden is now delved into new empire of music. Only some of Bruce Dickinson  solo stuffs came in something similar. As I said earlier, the singing parts is well done, we got the atmosphere. As in all other song, the orchestration covered the thin layer in the background. Of all 18 minutes, the majority spend in the musician playing meticulous arrangement. This is the chance to listen to over ten minutes instrumental that done by non progressive metal band. It's interesting to see Bruce Dickinson as the sole credit song writer of this song. So it's written by the vocalist rather the musician,  they are most probably composed on the paper rather than a product of jamming.  10/10

The Books of Souls is the natural continuation of Iron Maiden's musical journey. They no longer produce catchy song as in 2 Minutes to Midnight or Prowler. They have enough of that. In the past four albums or so (started in Brave New World), Iron Maiden begin to write song that have more pleasure in singing, rather than just listening alone. This new album is one of that kind. Songs are emotionally attached to music. With the new experiment in the last song, Iron Maiden challenge his fans to prepare for more musical swift in the future. This maybe not a smooth album for everyone, thus saying the transition always become ground of discussion. But in the end, we got eleven new Iron Maiden song to hum, not bad for millions of fans out there.

Metal Harem class: 7.9 / 10

Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls (2015)
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CD1
01. If Eternity Should Fail
02. Speed of Light
03. The Great Unknown
04. The Red and the Black
05. When the River Runs Deep
06. The Book of Souls

CD2
07. Death or Glory
08. Shadows of the Valley
09. Tears of a Clown
10. The Man of Sorrows
11. Empire of the Clouds

Bruce Dickinson - vocals
Nicko McBrain - Drums
Steve Harris - bass
Dave Murray - guitars
Janick Gers - guitars
Adrian Smith - guitars

Symphony X - Underworld (2015)

Finally the 9th studio album of Symphony X is here. Will this be their masterpiece ninth symphony? Songs like Nevermore and Without You that prior released give much hope to fans that it will be. The two songs package into the album called "Underworld", heavily influence by Dante's Inferno. This album follow very much the same works done by Symphony X from their two previous albums, Paradise Lost and Iconoblast. Although the gap between Iconoblast and Underworld is four years away, meaning there must be a lot of fresh idea to put in.

After the majestic "Overture", the first opener is "Nevermore". This song kicks in quickly with its leading riff, rightly jump into the progressive metal that Symphony X very much owned. It is heavy, fast and dark. Russel Allen's voice is kind of harsh to give some death metal touch. Gradually they move back to more melodic song such as "Underworld" and most notably in "Without You". Where the later is done much in old time power to melodic metal approach. The next two songs come almost similar, "Kiss of Fire" and "Charon", Symphony X enjoy their style in these two, which is characterized with strong guitar riffs then followed with progressive improvisation by the band. Another interesting point is definitely in "To Hell And Back". This one is nine minutes long, start with epic power metal feel, all the way to the most complicated song writing of the album.

Underworld is pretty much predictable for die hard fans, but it is also will not disappointing anybody because it is good and well written. The album consistent with Symphony X musical progress, no nasty surprise about the band experimenting something, well a bit but not much. With most of the members doing their own stuffs during their four years gap, this album is a good show that everybody still coming back to their own band's style. This album can easily presented to new fans who eager to seek out what progressive metal and Symphony X in particular.

Favorite tracks: Without You, To Hell And Back
Metal Harem class: ********* eight stars out of ten

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Symphony X - Underworld (2015)

01. Overture
02. Nevermore
03. Underworld
04. Without You
05. Kiss of Fire
06. Charon
07. To Hell And Back
08. In My Darkest Hour
09. Run With The Devil
10. Swan Song
11. Legend

    Jason Rullo – drums
    Michael Lepond − bass guitar, backing vocals
    Michael Pinnella − keyboards, backing vocals
    Michael Romeo − guitar, backing vocals
    Russell Allen − lead vocals

Joe Satriani - Shockwave Supernova (2015)

He is one of most celebrated rock guitar instrumentalist of our age, Joe Satriani, has reach his 15th studio album with Shockwave Supernova. Although Satch begin his journey 30 years ago in the '80s, his music seems keep coming and coming. Unstoppable Moments as he describe in his previous album. In Shockwave Supernova a new concept introduce, and re-introduce. Shockwave Supernova as explained by Satch in the Youtube, Behind the Album episodes, are mostly materials taken from Unstoppable Moments. They are rewrite by  the moment Joe Satriani stopover in Singapore. One of other things that very interesting about S.S. is the backing band. Satch recruited the Aristocrats to back him up! Well, minus Guthrie Govan, only (Guthrie actually got his part in G4 tour organized by Joe). Marco Minnemann and Brian Beller are new gun to Joe, they are joined by long time Mike Keneally to form a new super band. The result quickly come to the surface, as the album sees many new ideas that harder to find in previous album.

Already the first song,  Shockwave Supernova, see the new sound coming in. This entrance song highlight is about the classic arpeggios-theme licks backed with Marco's progressive drummings. Satch still very much own his game with immediately Lost in a Memory, which is easily identified by fans with his Satch-style leading melody. There are 15 songs in this album. Those who traditionally attached to Joe Satriani, I can mentioned out are: In My Pocket, a satch-bogie one, San Francisco Blue, old timer bluesy tunes, and the flag ship song, If There Is No Heaven, brings us back to the standard Satriani's "catchy" simple drum beat. The other songs, we see many some fresh ideas. Its begin with Crazy Joe, where Marco got his first "difficult" task to handle the guitar that start with scattered blues lick to 16th notes. Marco's drumming come more frontal in On Peregrine Wings, where the double snare accent become the main theme on that song. While Mike Keneally got his keyboard highlight in Keep On Movin', although the main theme is kind of re-cycled old Satriani song we have listened in the past. Other interesting stuff keep coming, All Of My Life is pretty sweet all out mellow song in term of band playing, the percussion quite distinguished here. A Phase I'm Going Through see that reaching tenth song didn't mean the song writing become lessened in quality, in fact this song see another good song writing stuff that force us to listen it up to the end.

In short, this is a stunning album from Joe. This album benefit from intense song writing and backed with so much energy from Marco, Brian and Mike. The cliche about music chemistry is surely there. Hard to find one specific song that stand out because they all do. This album surely come above expectation. We can say that Joe Satriani's style is predictable, ehem, this album still easy to see that happened, but now with lot of details that make those familiar tunes become really awesome to revisited. Bring this one to your music station and let the Professor show us how the amazing things about guitar to be done.

Metal Harem class: ********** nine stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

Joe Satriani - Shockwave Supernova (2015)

01. Shockwave Supernova
02. Lost In A Memory
03. Crazy Joey
04. In My Pocket
05. On Peregrine Wings
06. Cataclysmic
07. San Francisco Blue
08. Keep On Movin'
09. All Of My Life
10. A Phase I'm Going Through
11. Scarborough Stomp
12. Butterfly And Zebra
13. If There Is No Heaven
14. Stars Race Across The Sky
15. Goodbye Supernova


    Joe Satriani – guitar
    Mike Keneally – guitar, keyboard
    Marco Minnemann – drums
    Bryan Beller – bass
    John Cuniberti - producer

Paul Wardingham - The Human Affliction (2015)

The Human Affliction is a continuation of the themes that inspired Assimilate Regenerate....

Is the premise for the 2nd Paul Wardingham studio album, The Human Affliction. As we all know, Paul Wardingham is Australian shredder that took the world by storm with his futuristic licks in the debut album Assimilate Regenerate in 2011. Going strong with that released, Paul then hailed as one of the latest young shredder wave alike of Andy James, Christian Muenzner, and others. His second album was await by many. In this July, Paul will delivered his second album, although it is obviously a continuation to the previous one, this new one got more boost on electronic stuffs.

The album started with quite melodious "Manufactured Existence". Running in the progressive metal platform, this is all-in shreds that showcase highly dynamic song writing. It is five minutes composition but the licks flows, connecting each passage giving many unexpected turn of events every several bars. The second track is "Beyond Human", that gone more aggressive with a laser blast-like elements. Enjoy the dark futuristic theme that done by guitar leads, despite everything seems "beyond human", the melodic is fore fronted and easy to follow. Paul also reserved a slower tempo track with haunting melancholic melodic in "The End is the Beginning". With all the electronic infused licks swirling around, a track like "Earth 2.0" is a contrasting point that changed the storyline.

Overall, The Human Affliction is an album full of outer space theme licks. Paul can be given a big round applause for his effort in putting everything in perfect writing and formed a very solid conceptual album, an instrumental guitar album. The atmosphere  kicks in since the first note being played, consistently put listener to the journey of whatever chapter Paul want us to be in. This is the album that combined metal guitar and some kind of dubstep's electronic creativity. In this respect, Paul runs on his own invented style very well. To have this journey, pre-order the long awaited new album now!

Metal Harem class: ********** nine stars out of ten

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Paul Wardingham - The Human Affliction (2015)

1. Manufactured Existence
2. Beyond Human
3. Synthetic Mind
4. The End is the Beginning
5. Convergence
6. Digital Apocalypse
7. Earth 2.0
8. Simulated Reality
9 . Destroy The Artilect
10 . Exodus
11. Burning Chrome

The Aristocrats - Tres Caballeros (2015)

Being success with their first album, Culture Crash (2013), these happy guys in The Aristocrats has pulled out their second studio album called (the) Tres Caballeros. Based on their album cover we may feel that the trio is very happy and enjoy much time jamming together. Not much rock band want to proclaimed their togetherness as solid as Disney's classic trio. As reminder, The Aristocrats is super talented band with Guthrie Govan on guitar, Bryan Beller bass and Marco Minneman drum. The GGBBMM is going to blow everyone's mind with their blazing progressive madness.

Tres Caballeros is direct continuation on Culture Crash with new 9 tracks of creative musics. Stupid 7 is begin with chicken picking-like riffs, the main melody see Guthrie experiment with some ugly over compressed distortion. The song is typical rock-funk-flamenco feel, understandably this is the flamenco orientated album. Another crazy catching tunes is in Texas Crazypants, with Texan and cowboys in your background imagination as listening to this. Of the mellow, "easy-listening" song is Pig's Day Off, sweet clean guitar melody around. Smuggler's Corridor is simple Latin infused progression , the band wrapped it nicely and provide us a vibrant sunshine feel. The Kentucky Meat Shower is a shower of country licks, another style that explored in this album. The album then closed with 11 minutes jam, Through The Flower is kind of back to ordinary shred guitar of the '80s.

Overall Tres Caballeros seems like a tune down of a lot of complicated thing and they offer more relax to stuffs. Focusing on Spanish theme, this album is one unique idea in the field of guitar instrumental album. Bryan Beller and Marco is the other three half of the band. Nothing much to be added except that they enjoy high time creating backing track for Guthrie to laid down his melody. Of course those are not ordinary supporter with two most talented guy on board. Final words, the tres caballeros is going to volar tu mente !

Metal Harem class: ********* eight stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

The Aristocrats - Tres Caballeros (2015)

01. Stupid 7
02. Jack s Back
03. Texas Crazypants
04. ZZ Top
05. Pig s Day Off
06. Smuggler s Corridor
07. Pressure Relief
08. The Kentucky Meat Shower
09. Through The Flower

Line Up:
guitarist Guthrie Govan (Steven Wilson, Asia/GPS)
bassist Bryan Beller (Joe Satriani, Dethklok)
drummer Marco Minnemann (Steven Wilson, Joe Satriani)

Luca Turilli's Rhapsody - Prometheus, Symphonia Ignis Divinus

Would there be any room for new invention in symphonic metal, after two Rhapsody bands keep pulling out albums years after years? Luca Turilli is trying to prove this possibility once again. In his version of Luca Turilli's Rhapsody, new term has been coined out, Cinematic Metal. His first attempt in Ascending to Infinity was quite extravaganza , but by the standard of Rhapsody, it was just a little further continuation of their symphonic-metal legacy. Prometheus, is almost similar to their previous "debut". Only that now, Luca Turilli put giant orchestration works into his neo-classical metal, much much more than ever before. The cinematic metal that is, has more obvious bombastic than his "predecessor" Hollywood-metal. So you can imagine what come next.

First, listen to the traditionally opener, Nova Genesis (Ad Splendorem Angeli Triumphantis) is the first stone of this new idea. More operatic singer in the high set composition that have techno-synth and many many orchestra hits inside. Il Cigno Nero come up next as their first full song. Unusual to their tradition, it is open with piano intro. The song itself is quite generic Rhapsodian song. Rosenkreuz (The Rose And The Cross) is techno infused combined with Gregorian chant thing. The dynamic vocal arrangements still dominated the whole composition. More cinematic opening in the third song, Anahata, now that we will miss the old Luca Turilli's guitar riff already since all three songs have less guitar works. With the fourth song also emphasized more in vocals works mimicking Verdi's opera and a song title such as  Il Tempo Degli Dei, we are desperately need a heavy stuff. One Ring To Rule Them All can be quite a relief in term of that, since the this is one of their heaviest tunes in this album. The rest of song did not help much, Prometheus is their early release and we have listen to it. Fantastic song in term of rich orchestration, but as many may compliant, the lyrics is very Da Vinci code and hard to crack the meaning. As usual the pinnacle of the album is their last song. Of Michael The Archangel and Lucifer's Fall Part II: Codex Nemesis, that's the first part already known in their debut album.

This album said it all about Luca Turilli. The maestro keep pushing the symphonic metal into the jungle of cinematic and score-like composition. Indeed, Prometheus is amazing display of that. The most difficult part for Rhapsodian fans, and symphonic metal listener would be around three issues: First. the reduce of guitar virtuoso and riffs, which was once Rhapsody best trademark feature. Secondly is the obvious repetitive and recycle of ideas, which is also their hardest things to crack regarding new Rhapsody album. Third, is the lyrics and story telling part. As we know, classic Rhapsody albums all have original concept that hardly can be repeat. In Prometheus, the lyric is intentionally encrypted, and for symphonic metal situation, this may not working. Nevertheless, the album will provide many ideas for those looking for inspiration upon scoring and metal combined together. Obviously, Luca Turilli still working his best for fans in his music.

Metal Harem class: ********* eight stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

Luca Turilli's Rhapsody - Prometheus, Symphonia Ignis Divinus 

01. Nova Genesis (Ad Splendorem Angeli Triumphantis)
02. Il Cigno Nero
03. Rosenkreuz (The Rose And The Cross)
04. Anahata
05. Il Tempo Degli Dei
06. One Ring To Rule Them All
07. Notturno
08. Prometheus
09. King Solomon And The 72 Names Of God
10. Yggdrasil
11. Of Michael The Archangel And Lucifer's Fall Part II: Codex Nemesis
    1 - Codex Nemesis Alpha Omega
    2 - Symphonia Ignis Divinus (The Quantum Gate Revealed)
    3 - The Astral Convergence
    4 - The Divine Fire Of The Archangel
    5 - Of Psyche And Archetypes (System Overloaded)
12. Thundersteel [digipack bonus] [Cinematic version]

Alessandro Conti - vocals
Luca Turilli - guitars, keyboards
Dominique Leurquin - guitars
Alex Landenburg - drums
Patrice Guers - bass

Guest musicians
Dan "Fucking" Lucas - vocals
David Readman - vocals
Ralf Scheepers - vocals

Additional info
Recorded and mixed by Sebastian Roeder.
Mastered by Christoph Stickel.