Orphaned Land'in Sonisphere'den İptali

İlk defa gerçekten ciddi anlamda Türk olmaktan utandım. Eğer haberler doğruysa Orphaned Land Sonisphere tarafından gereksiz siyaset olayları yüzünden iptal edildi. Bunu destekleyen Facebook grupları da cabası. Websitesi anasayfasında böyle bir kapağa sahip bir grubun nasıl olur da savaşı besleyen zihniyette olabileceğini düşünürsünüz? Siz nasıl o 200 gramlık et yığınına beyin diyebiliyorsunuz, ben diyorum ki, siz onları aldırın, size omurilik yeter de artar.

p.s Eminim ki resmi de anlamadınız gerizekalılar. Resimde 2 adet Musevi namaz kılarken, 2 adet Arap yanlış görmüyorsam Tevrat okuyor. Kobi'nin İsa gibi giyindiğini söylememe gerek yok heralde.

For the first time in my life, I've been embarrassed to be Turkish. If the news about Sonisphere Festival 2010 at Istanbul is true, Orphaned Land has been cancelled due to the tension between Israeli and Turkish governments. Not only this, we also see facebook groups who support this. One thing to say, how can you claim that a band whose webpage starts with this picture, may share the same arguments that feed the war and hatred? You may say that you have a 200 gram meat mass, that you call a brain. I say have it taken out, since for you, a spinal cord is sufficient.

p.s I'm sure you idiots did not understand the picture. 2 Jewish people are praying in the Islamic ritual ways, while 2 Arabs are reading the Torah. Not the mention Kobi dressed like Jesus Christ.

http://tr.sonispherefestivals.com/bilgi/program/

Lamb of God - 17 May 2010 @ Istanbul

Yoğun istek üzerine, blogdaki ilk türkçe yazımı yazıyorum, tabi bunun nedeni sadece istekler değil, aynı zamanda başlıktan anlaşılacağı gibi böyle muhteşem bir olaya İstanbul'un ev sahipliği yapması. Çok geç tanıştığım, daha doğrusu hafif ön yargım yüzünden oldu bu, Lamb of God isimli şahane grubu ülkemizde izledik. Chris Adler'i canlı canlı izlemek de asıl ikramiyesi oldu gecenin.

Konser öncesi elbette gidip alkolümüzü aldık, konser alanına gittiğimizde, 2 sene önceki iğrenç kapalı alan yerine açık, daha geniş ve daha iyi kurulmuş bir sahne bekliyordu bizi. Gerek alkol, gerek ulaşım sorunu yüzünden izleyemediğim Black Tooth da cabası. İyi çaldılar herhalde ki Randy kendilerine bir şarkı gönderdi, teşekkür etti.

Neyse ki biz beklememizin karşılığını The Passing ile aldık, arkasından gelen In Your Words ve daha sonra gelen Set to Fail ve Contractor şarkıları Wrath'in ne kadar kaliteli bir albüm olduğunu tekrar canlı canlı kanıtladı. Playlist aklımda kalan şekilde, "Ruin", "Walk with me in Hell", " Now you've got something to die for", "Blacken the cursed sun", "Descending", "Laid to Rest", "Vigil", "Redneck" ve tabiki de hayatımda ilk canlı wall of death'imi gördüm diyebileceğim "Black Label". Mutlaka eksik vardır, şu an tüm şarkıları hatırlayamadım ama genel performans olarak ayrı ayrı almak gerekirse, Chris Adler neden Chris Adler tekrar gösterdi, bazı atakları çalmasa da, pedal tekniğini tekrar tekrar gözümüze sokup, davulcu olacak gençlere hem örnek oldu, hem de "gençler, işiniz zor" mesajı verdi. Gitarlar çok iyiydi, temiz ve yerinde bir hızda çalındı. Bas fazla örtmedi şarkıları, ki genelde kapalı alan konserlerinde sorun bu olur. Vokale gelince, bir çok yerde seyirciye verdi sözü, ki ben bunu cidden hiç sevmem, o 70 lirayı ben seni dinlemeye gidiyorum sahne önündeki insanları değil, yine de şov olarak iyiydi Randy. Bunlar önemsiz şeyler zaten, genel olarak çok iyiydi Lamb of God. İyi ki o 70 lirayı vermişim diyorum. Fakat tek bir şeyin eksikliğini hissettim, Dio için en azından bir şeyler söyleyebilirlerdi, şarkı olarak değil, saygı sunma adına. Metal için hayatını adamış bir insanın ölümünün ertesi günde 2000 tane \m/ işareti ortalıkta gezerken tek bir cümle etmemeleri biraz hayal kırıklığı oldu bence. Ama sonuçta Lamb of God'u dünya gözüyle gördük, oda arkadaşım omurgasını ben de boynumu oraya bırakıp döndüm. Bu yazıyı yazarken bile 70 derece çeviriyorum kafayı.

Dio.

Where is your star

Is it far, Is it far, is it far

When do we leave

I believe, yes, I believe

Insomnium - Above the Weeping World(2006)

Our next band is from Joensuu, East Finland. I believe Finland and Sweden to be the major countries where the best bands spawn, and in Finland, what is also known as the "A Land of Thousand Lakes", we can call it A Land of Thousand Melodeath Bands. Insomnium is a great example of that. Liking Opeth very much, and hearing very pleasing things about this band, like having even more potential, I've decided to give it a go with Above the Weeping World. I'm most pleased, even delighted.

The album starts with "The Gale", mostly a recording taken from nature. We start with a proverb like lyric "When it pours, it rains like hell". I believe if "The Gale" is just the pouring, the whole package is actually the Hell itself. Even the nature recordings are of best quality. After "The Gale", we enter one of the best pieces of melodic death metal, "Mortal Share", whose video can be found here. From the start to the end, "Mortal Share" states that it is a masterpiece. Based on a great melody, good drum tempos and good usage of vocals indicate that we found a song that can be listened always. After "Mortal Share", we find ourselves with more progressive songs, such as "At the Gates of Sleep","The Killjoy".

These progressive songs are really of best quality even for me, who does not really like progressive music. The album is very much like Opeth with even more melodies, no clean vocals. The album ends with "In the Groves of Death" who ends with raining, just like the way "The Gale" started, as to indicate there is an end for every beginning. Having the lyrics of themes of darkness,death,nature and mourning, they seem to be very poetic. All the instruments are powerful, especially the drums and the guitars who seem to create such great melodies.

I have not a single negative opinion on this band, as they seem to have done a wonderful job, where Swedish main Melodeath bands have started to drift from their paths. I really hope Insomnium turns into something even better and I can say "I actually listen progressive, actually one of the progressive out there".

Song List:

1- The Gale

2- Mortal Share

3- Drawn to Black

4- Change of Heart

5- At the Gates of Sleep

6- The Killjoy

7- Last Statement

8- Devoid of Caring

9- In the Groves of Death

Into Eternity - The Scattering of Ashes(2006)

This time we are in North America, and I mean North America. Our band comes from Saskatchewan, Canada. We've got ourselves a very different genre here, like Blood Stain Child perhaps, but nothing like that band. I can call this band a mix of Dream Theater and Soilwork. Yes you heard me right, Dream Theater and Soilwork together.

Being not much of a progressive fan myself, I decided to give it a one more shot, after listening to Insomnium so many times. Apparently not being able to keep up with the song is a major turn-off, unless the band does it good. Opeth does it brilliantly, so does Insomnium. But switching a thousand times the type of vocals in a song, along with drum tempos and guitar tones, it kinda gets boring. Then again, a progressive fan will really enjoy this album, because I believe we have some good clean vocals here. There is also a usage of screams, but not that you can find in Scandinavia, where 20 year olds scream like blowing your ears off with rage.

Basically the songs are much alike, start with a fast tempo, enter screams, then change to a Dream Theater-ish riffs and tones, start clean vocals, then harsh riffs with clean vocals in choruses.Sometimes these elements come in reversed order, starting with Dream Theater-ish start, then convert to death metal, such as in "Suspension of Disbelief". Even the clean vocals sound very much like James Labrie.

As I said before, not being a progressive fan made me not very pleased with the album itself, but I'm sure if you have a Dream Theater taste, and are okay with scream vocals, I believe you may like this group, even love it, because they are not bad at what they are doing.

Song List:

1- Novus Inceptum

2- Severe Emotional Darkness

3- Nothing

4- Timeless Winter

5- Out

6- A Past Beyond Memory

7- Surrounded by Night

8- Eternal

9- Pain Through Breathing

10-Suspension of Disbelief

11- Paralyzed

Degradead - Out of Body Experience(2009)

As we said in The Armegeddon Anthem review, Sweden has set its future bright as melodic death metal. Along with Zonaria, Degradead is truly a great band, with so many young people playing. I mean, come on, what can people think of you when your debut album was produced with the help of the Jester himself, along with Peter Iwers, and your second album was produced in Studio Abyss. Yes, that famous studio, run by Peter Tagtgren, who, in my opinion, is the god of melodic death. And I'm lucky to review such an album now. 1 year after "Till Death Do Us Apart" the energetic band Degradead returned with a what-we-can-call masterpiece like album.

The sound is not very different from the first album, meaning they are keen to stay on the genre, unlike Zonaria, who has drifted off a bit to black metal. That is good news for the melodeath fans. Sehlin(Mikael)'s vocals remain ever the same aggressive, and his cleans are much better than the debut album, as in "Future is Now". The single "Wake the Storm" having a video much like the infamous Prodigy song, "Smack my Bitch Up", is one of the best songs on the album, a good choice for video as well. Sehlin uses his growls and screams exceptionally on this album, probably got a great amount of help from the master, Tagtgren.

The song styles remain very much the same, like Predator's Portrait of Soilwork, but less keyboard elements and those tone shit. So if you dislike keyboard in a melodeath, but don't mind clean vocals, this album is tops for you. An instrumental song is included as well, under the name of "Transmigration". It starts with a acoustic guitar but ends with some growls with guitar riffs, so the name speaks for the song. But it's not the only song with acoustic guitars. "Illusion" also has some pieces of acoustic guitar usage, which is in fact a great addition to the song. Along those softness, we have shredding "VXR" a blast of energy, with non-stopping tempo, so the band makes sure we listen to every kind that they can offer.

I despise clean vocals myself, but I must say, Degradead, thanks to Tagtgren,has mixed all those elements into a great album, and show that they deserve the title given to them by Jesper Strömblad, aka the Jester, "the future of the melodic death metal". I would suggest to all melodeath listeners to watch and listen of course this group very closely.

Song List:

1- All is Gone

2- Wake the Storm

3- Achieve the Sky

4- Everlasting Hatred

5- Depths of Darkness

6- VXR

7- Future is Now

8- Transmigration

9- The Burning Orchid

10- Almost Dead

11- Dream

12- Illusion

13- Suffering

14- Unfortunate

Zonaria - Infamy and the Breed(2007)

For this one we scope Umea, a town in Sweden, in the eastern side, far from Stockholm, and even further than Göteborg. But I am sure that the sound isn't. As the creator of the genre, Sweden has the right to be proud of every Melodic Death Metal band that spawns every now and then. In Zonaria's case, Sweden has set its future bright. Oldest member being born in 1987, same age as myself here, the band already sounds like their fathers of the genre. Quite an accomplishment for the debut album.

The album starts with "Infamy" a mood-setting piece, with a small riff and a greeting. We face quite the riffs here, with melodies of course, and high tempo drum beats, with accompanied by Simon Berglund, one of the best vocalists I've listened. I hope his fate does not resemble that of Anders Friden, who now does little or no screams and growls at all. While we get familiar with the album, it hits us with its first single, "The Armageddon Anthem" who also has a video here. Other great songs follow this one, especially "Rendered In Vain" and "Image of Myself". The lyrics of course reflect death, and one's self with of course some elements of chaos and destruction. Quite the death metal lyrics as you can imagine. Guitar riffs are ever as delightful, as seen in "The Black Omen". The album finishes with "Everything is Wasteland" another great song, which in fact makes a great ending for the album. Although I have listed pretty much a lot of positive comments here, I must say that the band has created a sound of its own, which is a great plus in originality. Of all these swarming bands in Sweden, most of them just try to be another In Flames, Dark Tranquility or Hypocrisy, but Zonaria really tried to just be Zonaria.

It may have some or little flaws, not that I can see at the moment but I would not hesitate to say that "Infamy and the Breed" is one of the best debut albums I've listened, in fact I can only compare Nebularium of Disarmonia Mundi with it.

Song List

1- Infamy

2- The Last Endeavor

3- Pandemic Assault

4- The Armageddon Anthem

5- Rendered In Vain

6- Image of Myself

7- Evolution Overdose

8- Attending Annihilation

9- Descend Into Chaos

10- Ravage the Breed

11- The Black Omen

12- Everything is Wasteland

Blood Stain Child - Mozaiq(2007)

The first album review of Manu Cornuto Scope, comes from the very far east of the Earth. We are scoping Mozaiq, a 2007 album made by Blood Stain Child, of Osaka. This group can be defined by one of the most eccentric genres out there, Melodic Death Metal with Trance elements, We are sure someone will come up with a "-metal" name for this kind, but for the moment, we'll stick to Melodic Death with Trance elements. The album is comprised of 12 songs, each with a weirder name than other. As we know, Japan is known for weird things in general, weird fashion, weird people and etc. For an average thrash or death metal listener, this metal can be labeled as weird as well. But for those out, who enjoy trance too, this album can just be a fountain of life along with it's predecessor, which will also be reviewed here, Idolator.

Though the names are weird, the music is far better than what we can define as "weird". Starting with "Exotic-6-Cordinator" the band promises us an album full of energy, and fulfills that promise. It is mainly composed of fast tempos, usage of harsh growls and vocals, along with melodic keyboard tones, which are also used sometimes in a sad mood, seen in "Cyber Green". Of course after each of these tones, the album kind of revives and returns to its energetic stance.

While behind the keyboard lies a good practitioner of a melodic keyboard, clean vocals are not good as the growls and screams,the "talks" during the songs are also a pain in the ear. The album also has an instrumental song, "C.E. 0079", I really want to know what this means by the way, although it has some japanese girl speaking in the middle. In general I will label this as a good album but nothing much more, Idolator was better in my opinion.

From the Idolator, we can see a more shifting towards trance Idolator was already a large step towards trance, Mozaiq now brings the elements in a stalemate, so that we can not say this album is metal or it is trance. I'd prefer seeing it as a metal though. A few guitar solos help me out on this one.

Song List:

1- Exotic-6-Cordinator

2- Cyber Green

3- Freedom

4- Energy Blast

5- Pitch Black Room

6- Another Dimension

7- Metropolice

8- C.E. 0079

9- Innocence

10- Peacemaker

11- Neo-Gothic Romance

12- EZ Do Dance(Bonus track for Japan)

The Origin

"Sign of the horns", "Devil's Horns", "Horned Hand" and many others. All those terms to define a simple hand gesture, now so popular in world, especially with those who listen to Metal music. Said to be used the first time by Ronnie James Dio, the metal legend, who has learned it from his grandmother, the sign has spread to become a gesture of a brotherhood, as it was said in "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey".

But how did a simple hand gesture became to exist with this much power in a world where voice communication is dominant? We must journey to the origins of the gesture, where and how it was created. A superstitious pagan sign, said to prevent the "evil eye", like all other pagan symbols and elements, was carried into Christianity. Raised by a Catholic family, Dio has seen its usage probably a lot before changing the concept of the sign. He said he learned it from his grandmother, and that he did not invent anything, instead, he gave the sign a new meaning, a meaning that is known worldwide today, hence one of the reasons why Dio is considered the "voice of metal".

As the first post indicates, this blog is all about metal music, and maybe I'll throw some exceptions that are still linked with the genre.