Blind Guardian - A Night At The Opera (album review) ... A day at the races!

Style: power metal, symphonic metal, speed metal
Label: 2002
Year: Virgin
Home: Germany

Members: Hansi Kursch ~ vocals
Andre Olbrich ~ guitars
Marcus Siepen ~ rhythm guitar
Thomas Stauch ~ drums
Additional: Oliver Holzwarth ~ bass
Pad Bender, Boris Schmidt, Sascha Pierro, Michael Schuren, Matthias Wiesner ~ keyboards
Rolf Kohler, Thomas Hackmann, Olaf Senkbeil, Billy King ~ b. vocals

Anyone for a little Queen? Maybe a lightning fast power metal take on "Bohemian Rhapsody"? Well, I can't offer that - exactly - but borrowing an album title from Queen, German group BG answers the question of 'what if the symphonic sounds including chorus vocal parts of Queen were developed out by a speed power metal band'? The answer: Epic, upbeat versus dark metal, a nod to Dragonforce, over the top. On A Night At The Opera GB pulled all the stops out on their most ambitious release that moved away from straight prog-metal to something that is symphonic in every sense of the world, including the traditional classical & how Yes & Dream Theater define symphonic. I'll confess I originally bought this album because of the Queen title & I liked the album art, but knowing nothing about the band. I got what I paid for. The problem is Queen knew how to be complicated & over the top yet also subtle & soft. BG are complicated, busy, in your face, layer over layer. Subtle & soft is not in their palette for this album, thus while on one hand this show off their creative multi-layered world music influence at its best, yet at the same time may not show off BG at their representational best. I honestly don't know if I can tell you what BG sound like after listening to this & I've never felt compelled to find their other albums. This really must be taken at high volume or at least with good headphones as there are so many layers & so many things tucked into the mix that low volume a lot is lost. You miss their creativity ... but, for me, that's for me a sign that its time to pull back. At the end of the first song, a meager 6 minutes, I'd heard so many changes & ebbs & flows that I thought I'd heard numerous songs & the album was nearing completion. I've yet to be able to sit through the entire album in one go as halfway through my ears are exhausted & so is my mind. There's albums that are overly long but I should never have to cut an album up to listen by choice. It's one thing if I don't have the time to listen. But, creativity at its best never comes with the assurance that it will be completely accessible to the audience.

Van Canto ~ Hero (album review) ... The greatest da da dum dum!

Style: vocal, experimental, heavy metal
Label: Gun
Year: 2008
Home: Germany

Members: Dennis Schunke, Inga Scharf ~ lead vocals
Ross Thompson ~ higher b. vocals
Stefan Schmidt ~ lower b. vocals/wahwah solo guitar vocals
Ingo Sterzinger ~ lowest b. vocals
Bastian Emig ~ drums

Guest: Hansi Kursch ~ vocals

Though untraditional German rockers VC had gotten immediate attention on their debut, A Storm To Come, with their ear-catching rendition of Metallica's "Battery", a fast youtube favorite, it's their sophomore effort Hero that really is the highlight of their output to date. Quite often bands come out shining on their first album but it's the second where their sound really gels & they get a grip on what works & what doesn't, let alone become strong where they were weak. A Storm To Come suffered from some light arrangements where the lead singing was fine but the backing "dum dum da dum" vocalizations were not strong enough, too low in the mix & often moved into less than thrilling "ahs" & "oohs" & normal backing singing. It set up the band's gimmick but its Hero that moves things beyond gimmick & up a notch, or tightened the act. It happened a bit on the "Battery" but the rest of the album had too much normal acapella & put too much emphasis on the lead vocal & not enough on the 'rhythm section', which is the focus of VC. But, things have changed with Hero. The whisper is gone for harder heavy metal, or there's less focus on opera & more on the pounding rhythm section. For those that don't know what "dum dum da dum" vocalizations are or are feeling confused VC is not a normal heavy metal band. They do operatic metal with four male vocalists, a female vocalist & a drummer. That's it. No other instrumentation. All the rhythms & textures of a normal band are imitated via "dum dum da dum", "oh oh oh", "rakka rakka"& other non-word vocalizations while one guy & the girl take traditional lead vocals. They call themselves 'hero metal acapella.' The lead singer Dennis Schunke has a good full chest voice but not exactly a distinctive voice. His tone reminds me more of Paul Rodgers than any heavy metal singer, while Inga Scharf adds an operatic element with her high tones in a group of deep voiced men. So, obviously, the real attraction of the band is the backing vocals of the guys imitating a rhythm section. To hear someone sing Metallica is an experience in itself & put VC immediately into the limelight. Cover songs on subsequent albums have thus continued to be a main draw. The original songs being epic but lacking some of the punch of the covers. Hero takes this to a higher level than any album before or after. Their debut had two covers, Hero has half the album as covers: Manowar's "Kings of Metal", Nightwish's "Wishmaster", Deep Purple's "Stormbringer", Iron Maiden's "Fear Of The Dark", Blind Guardian's "The Bard's Song" & "Take To The Sky", the later featuring guest Hansi Kursch of Blind Guardian. Hero was the first album to feature a guest that would become the norm. It's hard to avoid not knowing about VC. I've had the opportunity to interview founder Stefan Schmidt who takes great pride in the original compositions, many from his pen, but sadly few are going to overlook these for the gimmick singles. Hero attempts to bring together both worlds. The only other weak part of the album is the vocalized guitar solos that are run through a wah-wah pedal thus losing their unique tones.