Album Review: Kiuas - Spirit of Ukko

Okay folks, here's a curveball for ya.  I'm going to be reviewing an album released in 2005 by a band you've likely never heard of, one that I hadn't heard of until a week ago, named Kiuas.  Spirit of Ukko was Kiuas' debut album, and they have released 3 more in the years following, including one in 2010.  Hopefully I'll be getting to those later.

Kiuas is a heavy metal band from Finland, drawing on Power Metal, Folk Metal, and some Progressive and Extreme Metal influences to craft their sound.  The vocals are what stood out for me - the singer doesn't try to do too much with his voice, staying largely within a medium range.  There's little growling, and no high-pitched power metal wails or black metal screeches.  The clean singing is refreshing coming from a band with Kiuas' sound, which generally is associated with death metal growls a la Kalmah or folk metal screams like that of Ensiferum or Wintersun.

The guitars are tight and technically impressive.  There are definite power metal themes here, sustained chords on choruses, high pitched riffs here and there, high-pitched soloing.  However, Kiuas makes sure to keep the sound varied, and some tracks are honestly reminiscent of Dream Theater with a less obnoxious vocalist and less guitar wankery during solo sections.   "Thorns of a Black Rose" has some cool blues riffs and solos on it, which keep things varied even further.  The closing track even has some Spanish guitar solo sections on it, which provide an amazing contrast to the heavily distorted and amplified main riff. 

The drums are pretty standard power/progressive metal fare; lots of double bass, very few blast beats, restrained when necessary, and smashing loud the other 90% of the time.  Not much else to say here, they don't stand out particularly, and there's not a uniqueness of style, like that of the Rev or Slayer's Dave Lombardo.

The bass on this album is...pretty much inaudible.  

Spirit of Ukko is composed of 8 tracks, most of which are vastly different from the others, as befits a band with such diverse influences.  I've already hinted at some of the different styles of rock and metal guitar that can be found here, but I'll leave it to you to actually go through and pick apart each song if you're interested.  I bought the album on Amazon, (where it was only 8 bucks) after my friend Nat told me about them.  They're not even on any of the torrent sites, so don't even bother looking.  Or do, but this blog does not actively endorse that choice. 

Overall, I'd say that this album was well worth my money, though part of the enjoyment I got out of it was the pure fun of discovering a new band.  Kiuas (don't ask me how to pronounce it) may not be a metal powerhouse at this point, but they are a sick band that has, in this reviewer's opinion, a legitimate shot at becoming one.  Thanks again Finland, for continuing to produce awesome metal bands and hockey goalies.

Overall Rating: 7.4/10  

 Here's the title track for your amusement.  The intro is sick.

350+ Canadian artists petition government to add tax to MP3 player sales

This week, over 350 Canadian musical artists including Anne Murray, The Tragically Hip, Nickelback (no surprise on the latter, note the lack of RUSH, however) have signed a petition and submitted it to the Canadian government in hopes that they government would apply a tax or levy to sales of MP3 players, to be paid to the artists as a royalty fee.  The idea behind the move is that people fill their MP3 players with illegally acquired music, and this is a way for the artists to get the money they're owed. 

"...We know that you do not want to see a Canada that is devoid of musicians and songwriters, but without fair and balanced treatment, that may be the tragic consequence," said the letter.  Give me a break.

This may have made sense when mixtapes and mixed CDs were all the rage, because people were obviously copying and burning songs onto those media, but it makes little sense in today's world, where purchasing physical media is largely unnecessary.  These artists are making the assumption that all music on all MP3 players is there illegally and that the listener never paid them for their music.  This is of course total crap.  I know a lot of people that refuse to download music and take pride in the fact that their entire music library has been purchased legally.  To these people, the idea of an additional levy on MP3 player sales should really feel like a slap to the face.  Besides, the idea of added fees on CD-Rs and RWs effectively killed those forms of media, and drove people in even greater numbers to digital distribution and MP3 players.  Try to tax those, and they'll just move elsewhere, either to smart phones or, as I've been saying all along, microchips in our brains with in-eye display screens.

At least it's just the Canadians.  Hopefully this nonsense never makes it to the States.  If it does, well, I hope my Zune lives long enough for the scientists to get my brain microchip idea going. 

System of a Down expected to announce Monday that they're reforming in 2011

Vocalist Serj Tankian

And now for some news that you may or may not care about.  System of a Down, the Nu Metal powerhouse that split up in 2006 so singer Serj Tankian could pursue a solo career (not a bad one, either) is widely expected to announce on Monday that they will be reforming for a series of shows in summer 2011, and possibly beyond that. 

The only confirmed date so far is a Paris show on June 6th, but reports indicate that they will play a series of festival shows possibly including the UK's Download Festival, one of the largest rock festivals in the world. 

System was one of the bands that really got me into heavy music in the early to mid 2000s, and even though my tastes have progressed somewhat since then, I suppose I owe them some thanks.  I still love "Toxicity," "BYOB," and "Chop Suey," they're some of my most-played tracks.  If they end up on the Mayhem or Uproar festivals next year, I'll probably consider going if they pass near wherever I'm living. 

The cynic in me says that the guys from System are probably feeling the pinch of unemployment and are running out of money, but maybe they legitimately want to continue making music together.  If they end up making a new album, I'll be very interested to see how their sound will have evolved after 5 years apart and the fall of the nu metal genre.

Study: musical taste linked closely to personality

According to a recent study conducted by Professor Adrian North of Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, the music you listen to could say a lot about your personality.  The study surveyed over 36,000 people from around the world (the largest such study ever done), asking questions to determine their taste in music as well as their dominant personality traits.  What Professor North found was interesting in that it suggests that fans of certain types of music tend to have similar personalities, and linkages can be made between musical genres and their listeners.


"One of the most surprising things is the similarities between fans of classical music and heavy metal," said Professor North.  "They're both creative and at ease but not outgoing."  This isn't terribly surprising to me, but more on that in a bit.

The study also was able to generalize that shyness is common among fans of classical music, while fans of heavy metal tend to be gentle and at ease with themselves.  "The general public has held a stereotype of heavy metal fans being suicidally depressed and of being a danger to themselves and society in general. But they are quite delicate things" North concludes.  Jazz fans tend to be creative types, while country music listeners define themselves as "hardworking," first and foremost.

In an interview with the BBC, Professor North argues that shared musical tastes create similarities and common ground among people that transcend national and regional boundaries.  He states: "heavy metal fans in Scandinavia, for instance, have far more in common with heavy metal fans in Brazil, than they have with classical music fans or any other types of musical fans in Scandinavia itself."


As I said, I'm not terribly surprised that fans of classical music and metal have a lot in common.  A lot of modern metal, especially that originating in Europe, is heavily influenced by classical music.  Look no further than, say, early Children of Bodom or anything by Yngwie Malmsteen to find metal music that attempts to imitate and innovate upon the themes and styles of classical music.  Metal bands routinely use orchestral backing tracks and introductions, further solidifying the connections between the genres.  Any metal fan worth his or her salt will tell you that Vivaldi is pretty awesome (honestly, you could play "Four Seasons - Winter"  with distortion and palm mutes and it would sound like thrash), and that Bach is great listening.  EDIT: I HAVE PROOF! 

I am surprised, however, with my apparent perfect fit into the personality of a metal fan.  I would describe myself as being gentle, at ease with myself, and not outgoing, as well as somewhat creative.  All of these traits are typical of metal fans, according to the study.  But does the music make the person the way they are, or do people naturally gravitate to the kinds of music their personality type tends to go for?

Here's the full list, courtesy of the BBC and Heriot-Watt University.  Wow, sucks to be an Indie fan I guess:  "Low self-esteem, not hardworking, not gentle."  Actually that's pretty accurate.  Also, note that fans of Chart Pop are "not creative."  Brilliant!

MUSICAL STYLES VERSUS PERSONALITY TRAITS

BLUES

High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease

JAZZ

High self-esteem, creative, outgoing and at ease

CLASSICAL MUSIC

High self-esteem, creative, introvert and at ease

RAP

High self-esteem, outgoing

OPERA

High self-esteem, creative, gentle

COUNTRY AND WESTERN

Hardworking, outgoing

REGGAE

High self-esteem, creative, not hardworking, outgoing, gentle and at ease

DANCE

Creative, outgoing, not gentle

INDIE

Low self-esteem, creative, not hard working, not gentle

BOLLYWOOD

Creative, outgoing

ROCK/HEAVY METAL

Low self-esteem, creative, not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, at ease

CHART POP

High self-esteem, not creative, hardworking, outgoing, gentle, not at ease

SOUL

High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle, at ease

Wintersun frontman Jari Maenpaa issues update on upcoming album

Finnish metallers Wintersun have finally issued another update on the status of their next album, over 4 years in the making.  No updates have been posted on the band's website since February 2009 when singer, guitarist, album artist (seriously, he drew the cover art) and producer Jari Maenpaa announced the cancellation of all Wintersun live shows.

Wintersun's debut self-titled album is one of my all-time favorites, but waiting for the new album, tentatively titled "Time" has been sheer torture.  Jari has posted irregularly timed updates on the status of the album, and each update has been more and more disheartening.  In 2009 he claimed to have "writers' block" which rendered him unable to work on the album, in addition to complaining about not having good enough computer hardware to handle the mixing process.

This update, however, brings good news.  Jari now says that Nuclear Blast Europe has given Wintersun an advance to purchase better computer hardware, and he aims to start and finish the mixing process around Christmas.  In order to obtain this advance, however, Wintersun had to agree to play a short run of festival shows in Europe, so, once again, all of my European readers (lol) can celebrate!

Here's the full text of the news release:

Hi everyone! It´s been a while.

I´ve been working very hard with the synths&orchestrations and I can finally say that I´m feeling very positive about finishing this long and gruesome task by christmas. So hopefully around the end of December I can finally start mixing the album. I still have a few vocal parts unfinished, but I will be singing them meanwhile I´m mixing.

The only problem about the mixing is that my current computer gear simply cannot handle these insanely huge projects. And the other problem is that I have no money for new gear. So we have discussed about this problem with our label&management and they have agreed to help us with an advance to buy new and more powerful computer gear, but only if we agree to play a few shows and show people that Wintersun is still alive. So after carefully weighting all the different possibilies, we think we need to play these shows to help the completion of the album.

The shows will be for now:

Metalfest (3 shows)
Metalcamp (1 show)

There´s lot of work and preparation to do for these shows, ´cause we have to update our live gear as well, sort out technical difficulties and of course rehearse the songs. This will most likely affect negatively with the mixing schedule, so I can´t give any predictions with that yet. I also need to try out the new computer gear first and see how it handles these projects. The software is still not 64-bit, so the "infamous 4GB RAM limit" might also be a problem with the mixing, since these projects already eat about 3GB without any plugins. But I will do my best to overcome this challenge the fastest way I can.

And no worries, these shows will definitely not be cancelled. So we are looking forward to you guys, see you at the gigs! Who knows, we might even play a one new riff... I mean a song! ;)

Jari, Kai, Teemu & Jukkis

Eluveitie, 3 Inches of Blood to tour North America in February

Eluveitie

This February, Switzerland's Eluveitie will join Vancouver, Canada's Three Inches of Blood for what is looking to be an awesome North American tour. 

I've just gotten into both of these bands in the last few months; I've posted about each of them a few times, but boiled down to their core I would describe Eluveitie as Folk Metal with celtic influences and Three Inches of Blood as the evolutionary form of Judas Priest - bluesy metal riffs with Halford-esque vocals.  Both bands are very talented, and both have released new albums in the last year. 

Eluveitie's unique brand of metal uses bagpipes, various guitars and mandolins, as well as the hurdy-gurdy, the handcranked instrument of choice of renaissance French musicians.  With 8 members onstage, all playing legitimate instruments (I'm looking at you, Slipknot) I'm sure Eluveitie can put on quite the show.  The pure power of Three Inches of Blood sounds like a blast to experience live as well.    

Here are the tour dates, gonna do my best to make it to the St. Paul show, we'll see what's going on in early February.

Eluveitie tour dates:
2/1: Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
2/2: New York, NY @ The Gramercy Theater
2/3: Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
2/4: Quebec City, QC @ Cercle
2/5: Montreal, QC @ Le National
2/6: Toronto, ON @ The Opera House
2/8: Chicago, IL @ The Bottom Lounge
2/9: St. Paul, MN @ Station 4
2/10: Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theater
2/11: Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater
2/12: Salt Lake City, UT @ Club Sound
2/14: Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
2/15: Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
2/16: Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
2/17: San Francisco, CA @ Slims
2/18: Hollywood, CA @ The Key Club
2/19: Mesa, AZ @ Nile Theater
2/21: San Antonio, TX @ Backstage Live
2/22: Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
2/24: St. Petersburg, FL @ State Theatre
2/25: Orlando, FL @ Firestone Live
2/26: Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade

Want to rake in some fly honeys? Try listening to Metal! How to get into the genre:

It has been proven that Metal is the world's most popular form of music (source: Metalocalypse, Lemmy sleeping with 1,200+ women--this one is true...I think) and is greatly adored by people from all subcultures and economic statuses. These days, you can't go to a bar or club without hearing Metallica's "Ride the Lightning" or Anthrax's "Madhouse," and you can't listen to a pop music station without hearing at least one Cannibal Corpse song. But Metal is a difficult genre to get into, but with enough patience, you can acquire its taste and in no time, the ladies will be swarming to you for your knowledge of all the words to "Number of the Beast."

"How do I start?" you might be asking. I will outline the three levels of Metal music listening and how you can pick and choose your own genres and advance to being a full-fledged fan of the music.

DISCLAIMER: this is my opinion of how one can sufficiently come to appreciate the genre, and I have been a fan for only roughly five or six years. Also, because Metal is a form of art, it is impossible to define correctly, so I remind you of the importance of forming your own opinions.

First I start with the Beginner's Tier. Here I recommend a number of songs that I consider to be the "foundation" of the genre; songs that every Metal fan has heard dozens of times. These songs are mostly from the 70s and 80s because they are the songs that helped define the genre, and are also the easiest to listen to. Although defining the "difficulty" of a song's listen value is a bit subjective, I feel these are the songs from which the most enjoyment can be received and have the best building power:
Paranoid, Iron Man - Black Sabbath
Detroit Rock City - KISS
Born to be Wild - Steppenwolf
Highway Star, Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple
Back in Black, Thunderstruck - AC/DC
Man on the Silver Mountain, Long Live Rock and Roll - Rainbow
Enter Sandman - Metallica
Rock You Like a Hurricane - Scorpions
Breaking the Law, You've Got Another Thing Comin' - Judas Priest

You can hear 90%--scratch that, 100%--of these songs on your standard Classic Rock stations, so just tune in to these stations for a few months and let the magic of the music work it's magic--don't "force" yourself to listen to it. Once you've got a powerful attraction to these songs, you're probably ready to advance to what I call the "Advanced Level" of listening. This is where you begin to select genres that you enjoy more than others, and the artists in this category are either the founders or significant contributors to their respected genres (while some of these artists inspired new genres for other bands to create). Below, I will list what I consider to be the biggest sub-genres of Metal, and I will also be grouping sub-sub-genres together as well, so when I list Death Metal, don't ask me why I left out Melodic-Stoner-Sludge-Black-Piano-Electric-Flute-Death-Metal. First, however, I will list a few more artists and songs that I consider "Advanced Listening," and from there, you can match band with the genre below. Most of these songs are from the 80s and 90s, as they are built off the inspiration from the songs I mentioned earlier, so we really begin to see the genres forming with these songs:

Raining Blood, Angel of Death - Slayer
Master of Puppets, Four Horsemen - Metallica
Peace Sells, Holy Wars - Megadeth
Hallowed Be Thy Name, Fear of the Dark - Iron Maiden
Heaven and Hell, Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Scream Bloody Gore (album) - Death
Would?, Man in the Box - Alice in Chains


Thrash Metal: Inspired by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, created by the Big Four, Testament, Pantera, and Exodus. Generally very fast with shouted vocals, often makes use of violent imagery.

Power Metal: Inspired by Dio, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, created by Helloween, Stratovarius, Manowar, and Blind Guardian. Generally makes use of high vocals combined with thrash-y guitar work, often makes use of sci-fi or fantasy imagery.

Death/Black Metal: Loosely Inspired by Black Sabbath and Slayer, created by Death, Venom, and Possessed. Coined the majority use of growling/screaming of lyrics, generally dominated by morbid imagery, very fast guitar and liberal use of double bass drums.

Alternative Metal: Inspired by, interestingly enough, a rejection of the popularity of Metal's image obsession and borrowing Metal's guitar style, created by Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Tool. Generally contain Metal guitar styles with a wide range of vocals and tempos.

The Expert Level is the most blurry, because it's really up to you as an individual to decide how much further you want to go with your listening and in which direction. Many genres are similar to one another or borrow elements from one to form another so it's helpful to know how each is related. Below I will provide a handy flow chart to describe the basic evolution of Metal from the Documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey to help give you an idea of what you should listen to next (this chart is highly debated and is not the be all, end all of the genre. Also, if it is hard to read, do a Google image search for "metal genealogy"):











































So there you have it, the best description of a cultural form that words allow me. Keep it mind that most of this article is up to interpretation, so it's up to you to define your own taste within the genre. Do not expect to gain a huge appreciation for the genre or one of it's sub-genres within a few days; it take a long time of occasionally listening to the genre when you truly want to and it cannot be forced. Enjoy and keep on rockin'!

-M-