Who is Hermi Flagglenack? Carbon based life form, or celestial varmint who crash landed his timecraft? Another manifestation of Hermes, the Greek god of thieves and tricksters, of shepherds and travelers, god of speed, guardian of the gateway to the land of the dead, creator of the Lyre, and friend of Apollo, god of music? Whoever he is, he has stories to tell, and music is appearing to help him assemble the scattered pieces.
Naxatras – III (Naxatras)
Fell in love with these folks instantly. Started with the first album, and “I Am The Beyonder” had me thinking they were My Greeking Karma, which I was totally fine with, but they are something a bit different than that, aren’t they?
“Sun is Burning” displays some flat out riffyness. Matter of fact, had a little bit of a Magic Circle experience with that opening riff. However, instead of being jealous, I had the feeling I actually had played that one before. So, I’ll accept that as a tribute to me. Thanks, guys! It’s a simple kind of riff, so I can jam that kind of thing all day. Yep, this is a band fer me.
Now, we all know that Gaia likes to spend some of her free time, whenever she can find it, dabbling with her guitar and laying down some sweet bluesy riffs. Seems to me some of her jams may have seeped through some of the cracks in the Greek soil and these guys have picked up on it and emulated what the Earth is saying. Listening to Naxatras is like profoundly bonding with our planet. Who doesn’t want that? They can deliver a slightly doomy (or we could say Earthy) tone with just enough brightness to put a pretty edge on it, without being super polished. Really nice.
I see more sandscrit and Hinduism involved here, much like My Sleeping Karma. I am feeling more spiritual everyday, but without all the wacky religious legislation. Nice. I may not have any interest in the weed, but I sure am glad that musicians do. Light ’em up, guys. I needs me more o’ dis.
BattleRoar – Codex Epicus (Cruz Del Sur)
Orange Goblin – The Wolf Bites Back (Candlelight)
It is always exciting for a Timecraft manufacturer to unveil and test their newest machines, and BattleRoar is no exception. The dawning of their newest craft, Codex Epicus, is revealed with dramatic orchestration complete with an almost angelic choir in “Awakening the Muse.” How nice!
As it gets under way, the celebration is somewhat rudely interupted by another shiny new craft, that of Orange Goblin, The Wolf Bites Back, calling for “The Sons of Salem” to rise up. Ripping across the bow of the BattleRoar machine, a shockwave of rumbling exhaust unapologetically causes previously proud faces to turn to disgust and anger. How dare they! Typical goblin behavior.
Fire up the engines! Let’s get ’em! “We Shall Conquer” this Orange Goblin! A plan is quickly devised to crash the gates of this interloping vessel. Battle has begun. Things look good for BattleRoar as their initial attack is successful.
However, just as advertised, “The Wolf Bites Back.” Not one to take this irrational attack lightly, Orange Goblin brings steel that slices through the night. Vengence, fire, and fury is unleashed to deal significant damage to the “Codex Epicus.”
Wasting no time, down in engine room of the Epicus (the dungeon), a new weapon is revealed. “The Sword of the Flame”! Disbelief at the Wolf’s attack turns to angered righteousness, swearing to bring back the light of victory. Or something.
Unnerved by this development, The Wolf dispacthes the “Renegade,” who is just plum out of shits to give. Riding on wings pure badassness, he comes storming into the Epicus, only to be met with…
“The Chronicles of Might”! Dignified warriors await to defend their kingdom in the sky. Seems the “Renegade” is no match for this battalion and their “Swords of the Flame.” Behold the power of the Codex Epicus! The Wolf Bites Back appears stunned.
But hold on. Orange Goblin seems to have produced their own doom laden “Swords of Fire.” Oh, snap! Pulling down the power of the cosmos, the crew of The Wolf Bites Back now have a weapon that can cut through mountains. Vengence is all but guaranteed.
Upon seeing this development, the wizards of the Codex Epicus decide to cast a spell of confusion upon the The Wolf Bites Back. In recanting the tale of “The Doom of Medusa,” they hope to make the crew of The Wolf to believe they are reaching the same dreadful fate as the (I assume) legendary Medusa Timecraft.
Well, that doesn’t work. Orange Goblin is not afraid of the “Ghosts of the Primitives.” They are men of science, after all, and not given to phantom fears and whatnot. Pfft! Please. The ghosts just fade away.
Horns bellow aboard the Epicus as a new call to arms echoes through the “Palace of the Martyrs.” Palace? This is clearly a large vessel. Attack resumes as both craft attempt to find a way around each others defenses.
After pausing a moment to consider tactics, The Wolf Bites Back launches the fearless “Suicide Division.” These daring thrill seekers will sacrifice everything for the cause. Break a leg, guys! Good luck.
BattleRoar finds themselves in a pickle. Their more traditional metal engine (although upgraded) is having a hard time with the more doomy/stoned concoction of Orange Goblin. Channeling the power of the “Kings of Old,” they renew their spirit to defeat this unrefined and brash nuisance.
Meanwhile, back at the lair of The Wolf, the captain takes a moment for introspection. Why do I do these things? Am I just a “Stranger” lost in time? Hmm… Nice to reflect sometimes, especially in the heat of battle. Nice zen moment.
With both crews reinvigorated, the battle continues…
Realizing the toll of lives aboard the Codex Epicus, BattleRoar engages in “Enchanting Threnody.” All could be lost, as the howling of The Wolf is now relentless. The craft is taking a thunderous pounding. Something must be done in order to return to glory. Remember, “We Shall Conquer”! For the kingdom!!
Orange Goblin reveals that it was indeed their plan to destroy the Epicus from the beginning. Having been disgusted by the rules of more traditional and “epic” metal, their quest now is to “Burn the Ships” that resemble anything from the 80s, BattleRoar’s gleaming vessel included.
The Codex Epicus prepares for its last stand to defend the “Stronghold.” Defenses are placed at maximum.
But all is for naught. The Wolf Bites Back is simply too much for the Codex Epicus. Despite all of its epic intentions, it now lays in complete ruin as The Wolf Bites Back heads off smoldering into the night, looking for more 80s based craft to take down, freeing the world from the “Zeitgeist” of that horrible timeframe. Stoner metal rules!
As far as scoring goes, I give both albums perfect scores. Nice work, both. Although, I can only give Orange Goblin a 9.815, deducting .185 for not being as “epic” as BattleRoar. Still a perfect score, just genre adjusted.
Mind Over Mirrors – Bellowing Sun (Paradise Of Bachelors)
“For a moment of night we have a glimpse of ourselves and of our world islanded in its stream of stars, pilgrams of mortality, voyaging between horizons, across eternal seas of space and time.” – Henry Beston.
I couldn’t help seeing parallels with my vision of the Timestream, which is entirely without light, but with shifting horizons, as all dramatic events from past and and future ebb and flow against each other in the waves of unseen space-time. With the proper drama particle collecting/absorbing technology fused to super nifty time engine (typically strampunky creations), music is discovered as it propels a Timecraft through the Timestream, revealing the “shape of time.” All stories, future and past, are available for interpretation as they are presented to our favorite Time Pilots. This is the short version of what I see with music. Hope that makes a little bit of sense. Seems kinda goofy sometimes.
With Bellowing Sun, I was able to pick up some new words/ideas. One was from A “Palinopsic Wind.” “Palinopsia is the persistent recurrence of a visual image after the stimulus has been removed.” This fits into the Timestream world due to the idea of a song becoming “stuck in your head.” An earworm, I suppose. I consider this phenomenon to be caught under a Time Shadow. The stimulus is gone, but the appearance of the Stream persists, like an auditory retinal burn.
Also catching my attention was “Acrophasing,” the time period in a cycle during which the cycle crests or peaks, especially the upper part of a sine wave fitted to a measurement of a circadian pattern or other biological rhythm. Sounds like Time Engine operating to me, so that has been added, or perhaps the waves in the Stream.
This time stuff is complicated. I am glad others know way more about this than me. It’s always cool to stumble across something that clicks into place with something dancing around in my head.
This is a well done project. Great journey. Some of the vocals kinda remove me from the experience a bit, but no biggie. Not entirely sure as to why. Maybe just not what I’m looking for here.
Night Flight Orchestra – Sometimes The World Ain’t Enough (Nuclear Blast)
Hells yes! Never heard of them, but they are great fun. Hard to believe they come from the likes of Soilwork and whatnot. Great transition. Sounds like Thin Lizzy meets ELO to my ears, which is a neat combo.
Was doing some reading on them, and stumbled across an article about their third album, Amber Galactic (2017) being a sci fi feminist space opera. They just made their second album available on Bandcamp:
CB3 (Charlottas Burnin’ Trio) – From Nothing to Eternity (Eggs In Aspic)
From Nothing to Eternity is a great album. From “Meditation” to its bookend of “Meditation II,” it glimmers with brilliance. Each song leads well into the next, with the big tracks being divided by the smaller ones for interesting interludes, of sorts. Neat setup.
Interesting label, too, this Eggs in Aspic. Good to see cassettes still making the rounds. I would constantly be afraid that my 1 of 50 cassette would get eaten in my tape deck, and I’d be stuck with a wrinkly, patched together collector’s item that was now unlistenable. Ergh. Well, that is, if I even had a tape deck to play it on.
Also like the fact that they offer a yearly club. Would be a cool thing to partake in. Wouldn’t miss anything. Listened to other bands on the label and they seem to support some real talent. Looks like they have carved out a nice little niche for themselves.
What a bunch of good eggs. Albeit, in aspic.
The Golden Grass – Absolutely (Listenable)
There are some great, happily boppin’ groovy guitars on this album. Just littered with goodness. Tones seem spot on all around. Everything meshes real nice. Love some of back and forth vocals, and the backing vocals not being buried is something I appreciate. “Out on the Road” might be fave jam. Got a cool guitar slow burn bit in the middle that has nice movement until a builds back up to full boogie. Oh, dancing guitars! Love ’em. Could picture Joe Walsh enjoying this.
Green Seagull – Scarlet Fever (Mega Dodo)
This band pulls off some amazing sounds. Really seems to capture some 60s greatness with tones, feel and delivery, with more modern clarity. It’s super nice. Again with the superb backing vocals. Dig the organ usage. Everything seems to find it’s place just when it should. Lots of satisfaction.
Wedge – Killing Tongue (Heavy Psych)
Seems they have evolved a bit since the first time around. Put some new elements in there, and they are welcome additions. “Nuthin'” is great driving opener. “Tired Eyes” is an amazing tune, and was my favorite until I reached “Push Air” at the end. Great closer song, and I held that on repeat for 5 times! Big smiles there. Viewed that song as a possible triple entendre. One, heavy breathing activity (the intended meaning, I’m guessing). Two, the very thing that speakers do at volume – push air. Three, what a vehicle does at speed – push air. All great things, and to me all work in context. From now on, whatever I’m doing, I wanna see some air being pushed around.
“Oh yeah! Let us push some air!” – Love it.
Kobra And The Lotus – Prevail II (Napalm)
Slightly disappointing affair unfortunately. This one doesn’t fly as well as the previous model. As Timecraft engines go, this one isn’t nearly as chronodynamic. Something has gone slightly wrong with the imagination drive, and the metal core of the engine is running a bit too cold. It starts out strong, but sputters pretty quickly, eventually stalls completely, refires back to life, rises to a crescendo of previous glory, settles on a steady pace of mediocrity, struggles to regain some incendiary force, but ultimately stalls again and exists the Timestream, leaving a void of dissatisfaction in it’s wake. Well, it happens. No biggie.
I am a bit confused as to why these past two albums are connected as I and II, because their doesn’t seem to be anything to connect the two. Not concept albums. They don’t match each other in intensity, as II is much more poppy. Prevail I was a bit of a musical self help book, with all kinds of advice on how to be a better human, almost like a Christian effort, minus the commitment to a higher power. Almost a bit preachy, but with cool hooks. Prevail II has some of that, too, but the formula feels a bit more stale this time. Or it got polished so much that they buffed too much soul out. Maybe Prevail II contains the songs that didn’t make the cut for the first one. Perhaps Prevail I & II because they are teaching us how to prevail as as a race of humans. Against ourselves? Guess they couldn’t call the albums “Stop Being a Douche!” and “Seriously, Knock it Off!”. Sometimes it feels like instead of getting Kobra and the Lotus, I got Nickelback, but fronted by Avril Lavine. Still Canadian, but a different flavor. The album ends with a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain,” but changed a bit to more suit ’em. Hmm… Meh.
Do I like it, though? For the most part, yes. Not a bad album really, just feels less inspired to me. That’s the problem with expectations, I suppose. I’m sure a lot of people will like it, and that’s great, but they forgot about me somehow. How does this happen? Heh. Maybe it’ll grow on me. Sometimes it takes awhile.
March 29, 2024
Fester’s Lucky 13: 1994
March 11, 2024
Winter Rundown
January 4, 2024
Fester’s Lucky 13: 1989
