Nightwish - "Shudder Before the Beautiful"

When Nighwish released their new album, Endless Forms Most Beautiful, earlier this year me and a lot of critics didn't really think it was that great. After seeing them live and listening to it a few more times I really started liking it a lot more. A lot of the tracks sound have a similar sound to them but I really like it. Is it their best album ever? Definitely not, but it's super solid and I enjoy listening to it. This song in particular, the first track, is a solid representation of the album and if you like it you'll probably like the rest. If you like what you hear I'd definitely recommend giving the rest of the album a listen.

Rating: 7/10 We are shuddering before the beautiful, before the plentiful, we, the voyagers

25 Days of Metal Day 17: Single of the Year: Sonata Arctica - "The Wolves Die Young"

Rating: 9/10 This is the day when the wolves die young They'll never see a new midnight sun The time has come to announce winners! Holy shit I am in love with this song, having listened it to a more and thought about it a bit and the song tells a really interesting, if a bit generic story which made me appreciate it even more, honestly I was a bit disappointed with the general quality of the singes released this year, but this one was certainly excellent.

25 Days of Metal Day 11: Music Video of the Year Nominations #3: Within Temptation - "Whole World is Watching" ft. Dave Pirner

Rating: ?/10 What are you waiting for? What are you fighting for? Cause time's always slipping away. The whole world is watching. There are actually two versions of this song featuring different male vocalists, but this is the version used on the album and the version I like better. The song and video are very inspirational about doing your best and believing you can accomplish anything.

25 Days of Metal Day 10: Music Video of the Year Nominations #2: Epica - "Victims of Contingency"

Rating: ?/10 If you blame all your failures on someone else, without any remorse, if you don't face the weakness of your own self, you will take the same course. Whoops, I missed a day because I was busy with finals so two posts today! Anyways, when I saw this video it really caught my eye, I'm a super big fan of the song, but the music video is really interesting. A song about taking responsibility for your actions and the video represents that well.

25 Days of Metal Day 8: Non-single song of the Year Nominations #4: Within Temption - "Silver Moonlight"

Rating: ?/10 Screaming at the walls of fire But I'm still running free In the silver moonlight I can't breathe Look, this album has too many good songs that weren't released as singles, I can't just pick one, this song is also amazing, it's really simple, but uses the contrast between Sharon's vocals and death growls well and I love the whoaaaaaaa almost as much as highlander.

25 Days of Metal Day 7: Non-single song of the Year Nominations #3: Epica - "Unchain Utopia"

Rating: ?/10 We're in a time where all enterprises fall, we should beware of the wolves that haunt us I've always had somewhat mixed feelings about Epica, on one hand I think Simone Simmons is the best active symphonic metal vocalist, however I often don't like their composition and often feel they focus too heavily on death growls, however I feel they struck a really good balance with their album this year and I think this track showcases this very well.

25 Days of Metal Day 5: Non-single song of the Year Nominations #1: Within Temptation - "Covered by Roses"

Rating: ?/10 Covered by roses Sometimes I question artists' choices in singles, and this is definitely a song that would have made an amazing single. This is a song I can just listen too over and over again and I still love it. I feel the instrumentation is fairly simple and a bit repetitive, Sharon absolutely nails the vocals which solidifies this as one of my favorite songs from this year

25 Days of Metal Day 3: Single of the Year Nominations #3: Sonata Arctica - "The Wolves Die Young"

Rating: 9/10 I'm gonna make sure the prophecy is undone, find out where those children have run This is definately my favorite song from Sonata Arctica's new album and I think it represents the band and album very well with a focus on vocals and a combination of both the keyboard and guitar in the melody. I think the lyrics speak for themselves. Although I don't think it is intentional, the lyrics really remind me of Game of Thrones. I really like the instrumentation and the vocals in the chorus in particular. I really don't like the music video for this song but you can easily find it on youtube if you want to. Overall, this is probably my favorite Sonata Arctica song in quite a while.

25 Days of Metal Day 1: Single of the Year Nominations #1: Within Temptation - "And We Run" ft. Xzibit

Rating: 8/10 And we run with a lonely heart And we run for this killing love I'm back with 25 days of metal counting down to Christmas and doing awards in five categories. Best single, best non-single track, best music video, best album, and finally best song. The first 16 days I will announce and review the my four nominations for the first four categories, days 21-24 I will announce the winners for the first four categories, the 17th to the 20th I will announce the winners for those categories and on the last five days I will count down my top 5 songs of the year. I will keep the scores hidden for these songs until I announce the winners so I don't spoil the results early. Enjoy 25 days of NOTHING BUT METAL!!! Anyways, on to the review. The singles for this album are a bit awkward since half of them were released before the album at the end of 2013, and the other half were released after the album in 2014, of the 2014 singles, musically this one is my favorite. The contrast between Within Temptation's vocalist Sharon den Adel and American rapper Xzibit make a unique symphonic metal track that I find amazing.

Download Festival - Friday: June 13, 2014

Back in June this year, I went to Download Festival (one of the largest and best rock/metal festivals in the U.K.) as my graduation present. And I thought I might do a review of my experience by day, with some of my favorite performances*. I know it was months ago, but I'm slow at getting things done.
*full lineup.
On Friday of the festival I looked around at the different stages and was at the main stage for Black Label Society, Within Temptation, Rob Zombie, and Avenged Sevenfold.

Within Temptation

This is the first band I really knew before attending and so obviously one that would peak my interest. They were the second to last band on the main stage before the headliner, and played set that lasted around an hour. I only knew one song by this Dutch metal band, but after seeing them, I would really like to get to know them better. While vocalist, Sharon den Adel did not have quite as much energy as the frontmen of some of my favorite live acts, she did have a powerful voice, which is definitely something to appreciate from a female in rock. The song "Our Solemn Hour" was one that stayed in my mind long after the show (probably has something to the Latin chant). It's a really neat symphonic metal track off the band's fourth album The Heart of Everything, and has a full, steady beat.

The main stage headliner the first night was American metal band A7X who are not new to this blog. Now, I am not usually the one to review their stuff, but I have enjoyed listening to them since even before the festival. I was quite excited to see this group, and I was not disappointed. The played a set that lasted about two hours (including the encore) that was full of fire (literally) and heavy metal. Their new drummer (RIP the Rev) Arin Ilejay did a pretty darn good job, even with the old songs' complicated and epic beats. Synyster Gates had some beautiful guitar solos that night, along with his song "So Far Away" that vocalist M. Shadows dedicated to their fallen bandmate and friend. The songs I have here are the first single and title song of their newest album Hail to the King (one I think encompasses the album pretty well), as well as "This Means War" also from that album (this song was stuck in my head for days after). Their sixth studio release came out August 2013, and was the first with Ilejay on the drums. Although he is capable of tougher beats, the band wanted to strip down music some, but it still sounds fantastically epic.

Avenged Sevenfold

Nightwish - "The Kinslayer"

Rating: 7/10 This is one of my favorite examples of classic Nightwish from Wishmaster which was their heaviest album, this a great example of that style with the power metalesque instrumentation but given the symphonic twist with the keyboard and Tarja's vocals. A really interesting example, quite possibly the song that best exemplifies symphonic power metal as a genre. This is definitely one a song that I didn't like as much when I first heard it but it has grown on me a lot over time.

Within Temptation - "Paradise (What About Us?) ft. Tarja"

What about us? Isn't it enough. No, we're not in paradise.

Rating: 9/10

When I heard one of my favorite symphonic metal bands was collaborating with Tarja, one of the greatest symphonic metal singers, to release a song, I was excited and boy did they deliver. This song is absolutely amazing, probably the best symphonic metal song released this year so far, and I absolutely cannot wait for the upcoming album. I listened to this song on repeat for a really long time when I first found it. Interestingly this is one of the very few symphonic metal duets I have heard and I am surprised it turned out so well, Sharon of Within Temptation and Tarja's voices compliment each other perfectly. Also the music video is extremely well done and obviously had a lot of work put into everything about it, unfortunately our small player doesn't do it justice, I would recommend watching this one in full size on youtube. Overall I am extremely impressed so far and can't wait for Within Temptation's new album.

Epica - "Chasing the Dragon"

What goes around will come around, don't deny your fears, so let them go and fade into light.

Rating: 7/10

Alright, I lied, it turns out there is another awesome song from this album I missed the first time. Epica recently released a "best of" album on spotify and this was on it, having listened to the album extensively found this song to be one of my favorites and apparently I missed it when I first listened to the divine conspiracy. Anyways, this song is very symphonic metal, and that is a lot of the reason I like it so much. It is a very relaxing song and it has been stuck in my head all week, which is totally fine with me. It is a bit on the long side and there are parts of it I like a bit less, but as a whole I love this song. Also for those use Spotify check out their best of here.

Tarja - "Never Enough"

No, never enough, never enough, I gave it all, you still want more.

Rating: 4/10

Not to be confused with Never Enough by Epica, this song is the first single to be released from former Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen's upcoming album Colours in the Dark. This will be her third studio after breaking up with Nightwish. The song starts out as a very strong symphonic metal song and I really like it, however I would say I am not as much of a fan of the second half of the song, particularly the very end where the vocals cut out and especially do not like the static at the end. The lyrics video is very well done and I appreciate the work that has gone into it, however so far I'm not convinced the new album will be good from this song but I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of the album is tomorrow on August 30th.

Nightwish - Elvenpath

Long ago, in the early years of the second age, the great elven-smiths forged the Rings of Power.

Rating: 5/10

This song from Nightwish's first album, Angels Fall First, this song is both the an amazing song and a terrible song at the same time, I can't make up my mind as to which one. Basically it is one giant pile of Lord of the Rings references, if you are into that, more the better, I think it's alright but other than having a lot of Lord of the Rings references, I don't think the song itself is that good. Sometime I absolutely love this song, sometimes it is way to cheesy for me, definitely give it a listen and make a judgement for yourself. I do not get most of the references in this song and unless you have an obsessive devotion with Lord of the Rings, like some people I know, you very well may not enjoy this song.

Epica - "The Obsessive Devotion"

Don't you ever blind me, don't be a foolish thief.

Rating: 7/10

This is the second song I have posted from this album and I am extremely mixed on this one. The first half of the song I absolutely love, one of my favorite songs, but the in the second half it really goes downhill for me. Something about the lyrics in the beginning are just beautiful to me. I feel having read through the lyrics that this song is about a person going through the five stages of grief, if you read the lyrics, the first two lyrical sections cover denial, the third anger, the next section is bargaining, and the rest of the song is acceptance. Quite an amazing song and I consider the first part of the song to be one of Epica's best. The album for me is fairly good, but the only two stand out songs are this and Never Enough which my review of can be found here. That actually sums up Epica as a band fairly well for me. Most of their songs are fairly good with a few absolute gems which are some of my favorite songs.

Avantasia - "Spectres"

Wide open minds will divine without reason, cold is the night as you're braving the gale

Rating: 9/10

This is the best track from Avantasia's 2013 album The Mystery of Time, which, as normal with Avantasia, is quite an exceptional album. Also as is normal with Avantasia, all the songs on the album are good, but none of them stand out to me as incredible. This song in particular I like because of the transitions between fast instrument focused sections and slower vocal focused sections. I am very impressed with this song and this album in general and it definitely is one of my top metal albums of the year.

Epica - "Storm the Sorrow"

I’ve tried to peer into the core, but could not storm the sorrow.

Rating: 9/10

This song is so amazing, maybe I'm i'm a bit biased because I absolutely love European metal, but seriously, this song is really good. But I digress, for me, what I really like about this song is the combination of the powerful (one might say epic(a)) string ensemble and the guitar in the background, and really well though out and well sung lyrics in the foreground. This song is a song you can tell has some deep meaning right from the start, and was carefully crafted to convey a point. This is the meaning of the song according to the band's lead singer, "Storm the sorrow deals about all the negative criticism which everyone has to deal with in their life. Everybody has something to say about everyone and a lot of criticism comes from jealousy and envy. Besides being criticized by the public, you're also criticizing yourself. It is a struggle within and you alone can fight it." I feel this is a very relevant problem to a lot of people and is a good choice for a theme of a song. Also the music video for this song is absolutely incredibly well done, and if you think about it, it is very easy to see how the video shows the theme of the song. This song is one of the favorite songs I have found this year so seriously, give it a listen.

Sirenia - "Seven Widows Weep"

Seven sailors from the north, set their sails for the island rock.

Rating: 8/10

This is the first single released off of Sirenia's new album, Perils of the Deep Blue and it is really good. I'm not the biggest fan of Sirenia's older work but they have something really good going with both this song, and it's music video. It is definitely one of the best music videos for a metal song I have seen in a long time. As seen in the music video, it seems to tell the story of seven sailor who encounter a group of seven sirens. I really like how they use the combination of male and female vocals to tell different parts of the story and I can't wait to hear the rest of the album since they seem to have some really good stuff going here.

Rhapsody - Emerald Sword

For the glory the power to win the black lord, I will search for the emerald sword.

Rating: 8/10

The Song: Rhapsody as a band and Emerald Sword as a song are basically the quintessential symphonic power metal and in that way is it totally awesome. Although it is totally awesome it also shows some of the flaws with the genre such as the lyrics being very hard to understand.
The Album: Symphony of Enchanted Lands is the second album in a series of five albums telling a high fantasy story about the Ice Warrior who must search for the legendary Emerald Sword to defeat the dark lord Akron.
The Band: Rhapsody, now known as Rhapsody of Fire is a metal band known for being the pioneers of the symphonic/power metal genre, what they call Hollywood Metal due to it's resemblance to film scores. They released 9 studio albums and 1 live album with the original members. In 2011 the band split, on good terms, into two separate bands, Luca Turilli's Rhapsody lead by lead singer Luca Turilli and bassist Patrice Guers, and Rhapsody of Fire with the remaining members.