Sunday, November 30, 2008
Smile Back At Death*
Ok, I'm so I'm a little over-interested in the names people pick for their musical projects. But when it's just an individual, and not one using it as an umbrella term for him/her and whoever they are collaborating with this time, it's begging to be asked why you would bother. Enter Martin Lucas, or "The Celturian", or "Martin Celturian" as he was introduced this time around.
He plays solo acoustic guitar instrumentals, in a variety of styles from straight blues to Scots reels and all manner of traditions in between, and you can easily imagine his music providing a soundtrack for whatever goes on at Blackmore's Night Towers. You can see for yourself below his stunt of playing with three capos, and while he's undoubtedly staggeringly proficient technically, er, so's Malmsteen. It's all very interesting, once, but for someone whose major interest in music is having something to sing along with, I'll leave it to you to complete this sentence on your own.
Next up were Gone Til Winter. Another non-fantastic name, and after a quick run through the few tunes they have on myspace and I'm not really moved from my initial comparison with Within Temptation. There's a certain polished dynamic about the four guys getting thirty seconds into the first tune before the female singer Talena joins them on the stage, and she certainly has a presence. There's a trace of Cher's back-of-the-throatiness at times, likewise Ann Wilson's raspiness and all layered over some rather robust prog metal. They strike a visually incongruous note, bass player with hair down to his waist, guitarist and keyboard players looking fresh out of accountancy school, and goth-lite frontwoman with a bright pink fringe in the otherwise none more black hair.
If you ever wonder whether you are in muso trouble, one way of telling is if your eye is drawn to the guitar neck, wondering if it looks a bit wide, until you realise it's a seven string. And that possibly sums them up, there's just a bit too much much really. The music is polished and proficient, but where WT have a bit of space in the vocal and keyboard melodies, GTW seem just to power through it all. There's a sense in which Talena reminds me of Sporty Spice, and much as La Chisholm is my favourite Spice Girl on account of being the only one who appears to love music for the music rather than as a means to an end, I think she's suffered at times from her choice of material. I dare say she'll lose no sleep over my opinion there, and nor should Gone Til Winter.
After a very challenging six months which have seen him lose his wife after months of illness, Blaze Bayley could be forgiven for wanting to give up. I'll be honest, but for those events, I'd have been far less likely to go to this gig, but in the circumstances showing a bit of support for the frontman of the best British metal band of all time (flame me now!) is the least I can do.
When I first saw Wolfsbane over twenty years ago, it was obvious Blaze was a man who lived for being on stage, and that hasn't changed. This must be third different incarnation of the Blaze Bayley band that I have seen, and it wipes the floor with the others. In Dave Bermudez' gurning and fist-pumping there's a frustrated frontman waiting to burst out if he ever tires of the bass. In Jay Walsh and Nico Bermudez there's a pair of guitar players who combine twin riffing with fluid solos, ably backed up by Larry's blockbuster drumming. They've been playing together for a while now, and it shows.
The setlist includes eight songs off current album The Man Who Would Not Die, the title track of which is a perfect way to launch into two hours of fist-pumping, headbanging, floor-shaking rocking. I don't believe I've ever hear Blaze's voice sounding this consistently good, and while he's always looked perfectly at home on stage, with this line-up he has every reason to be supremely confident that they all deliver, every time.
There's a touching tribute to late wife (and band manager) Debbie before the first encore track, While You Were Gone, and anyone who hadn't seen the tributes on the website would still be left in no doubt about the man behind the metal. For all it was written well before Debbie became ill, the amount of death references on the new album seems strangely anticipatory, and even if he isn't always smiling back at death, on this form Blaze and band should survive, and thrive.
* Smile Back At Death is the third track on the album The Man Who Would Not Die
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If you ever wonder whether you are in muso trouble, one way of telling is if your eye is drawn to the guitar neck, wondering if it looks a bit wide, until you realise it's a seven string. And that possibly sums them up, there's just a bit too much much really. The music is polished and proficient, but where WT have a bit of space in the vocal and keyboard melodies, GTW seem just to power through it all. There's a sense in which Talena reminds me of Sporty Spice, and much as La Chisholm is my favourite Spice Girl on account of being the only one who appears to love music for the music rather than as a means to an end, I think she's suffered at times from her choice of material. I dare say she'll lose no sleep over my opinion there, and nor should Gone Til Winter.
After a very challenging six months which have seen him lose his wife after months of illness, Blaze Bayley could be forgiven for wanting to give up. I'll be honest, but for those events, I'd have been far less likely to go to this gig, but in the circumstances showing a bit of support for the frontman of the best British metal band of all time (flame me now!) is the least I can do.
When I first saw Wolfsbane over twenty years ago, it was obvious Blaze was a man who lived for being on stage, and that hasn't changed. This must be third different incarnation of the Blaze Bayley band that I have seen, and it wipes the floor with the others. In Dave Bermudez' gurning and fist-pumping there's a frustrated frontman waiting to burst out if he ever tires of the bass. In Jay Walsh and Nico Bermudez there's a pair of guitar players who combine twin riffing with fluid solos, ably backed up by Larry's blockbuster drumming. They've been playing together for a while now, and it shows.
The setlist includes eight songs off current album The Man Who Would Not Die, the title track of which is a perfect way to launch into two hours of fist-pumping, headbanging, floor-shaking rocking. I don't believe I've ever hear Blaze's voice sounding this consistently good, and while he's always looked perfectly at home on stage, with this line-up he has every reason to be supremely confident that they all deliver, every time.
There's a touching tribute to late wife (and band manager) Debbie before the first encore track, While You Were Gone, and anyone who hadn't seen the tributes on the website would still be left in no doubt about the man behind the metal. For all it was written well before Debbie became ill, the amount of death references on the new album seems strangely anticipatory, and even if he isn't always smiling back at death, on this form Blaze and band should survive, and thrive.
* Smile Back At Death is the third track on the album The Man Who Would Not DieLabels: Blaze Bayley, gigs, Gone Til Winter, metal
