By BRENDAN TENAN
Staff Writer
Welcome back, fellow rockers. It’s time for another edition of “Bang Your Head with Brendan.” I sincerely hope everyone had a great vacation and had plenty of cause to celebrate. The world of music, especially rock ‘n roll and metal, had plenty of reasons to celebrate and things to be thankful for. The year 2013 had many bright spots for all things rock, from newer artists making their mark, to more veteran bands returning with some of their best work, to living legends showing their peers half their age how it’s done. This week’s column will be a combination of a retrospective on the year that was, as well as looking ahead at what’s to come. First is my personal list of the 10 best albums that premiered or were widely released in 2013. After that, I will list the bands that I am anxiously waiting to hear from in 2014.
10. Volbeat, Outlaw Gentleman & Shady Ladies: Danish rockers Volbeat is the type of band in which the members wear their musical influences on their sleeves, blending the styles of early country, classic rock, and modern metal to create a sound all their own. Outlaw Gentleman & Shady Ladies saw the band taking that a step further, with almost every song featuring themes related to the Old West. Standout tracks include “Dead But Rising,” “My Body,” “Doc Holliday,” and the Grammy-nominated “Room 24,” featuring vocal support from the legendary King Diamond.
9. Death, …For the Whole World to See: Okay, so I’m kind of bending the rules I laid out earlier with this pick. These songs were first released as an EP in the 70’s by Death, a trio of brothers from Detroit. The band, in many ways, helped create the template for punk rock in the same era as the MC5 and The Stooges. Due to a number of different circumstances, however, Death never attained the recognition its peers did. The band slowly faded into obscurity, with the vast majority of the public having never heard of it. Fortunately, a documentary about it, titled A Band Called Death, has helped shed light on this proto-punk act. Do yourself a favor and check this album out. You can thank me after hearing songs like “Keep on Knocking,” “Rock-N-Roll Victim,” and “Politicians in My Eyes.”
8. Calabrese, Born with a Scorpion’s Touch: “The World’s Greatest Horror Rock Band” has been churning out consistently excellent music for a decade now. Its latest, Born with a Scorpion’s Touch, may be its best yet. The brothers Calabrese have always had a seemingly natural ability to mix hard-rocking riffs and chord progressions with choruses and hooks that make the listener want to sing along. However, on this album, they were able to take this formula and expand themselves sonically in a way they never had before. “I Wanna Be a Vigilante” shows off more of their pop sensibilities than we’ve previously heard, while “I Ride Alone” reminds fans why they liked the band in the first place.
7. Dream Theater, Dream Theater: For a band with close to three decades of material, Boston area proggers Dream Theater arguably had a lot to prove with this album. After the departure of former drummer Mike Portnoy, many people wondered how the band would turn out. Its latest, eponymous album answered any and all concerns its fans may have had. Dream Theater is still a fantastic collection of musicians who are among the best in their respective crafts, and you’ll be hard pressed to find many prog metal bands better than it. Key tracks include “The Enemy Inside,” “Behind the Veil,” and the 22-minute “Illumination Theory.”
6. Pearl Jam, Lightning Bolt: I wrote, in my original review of Lightning Bolt, that this album seemed to show a somewhat happier side of grunge icon Pearl Jam. After listening to it a few more times over the holiday break, I realized I was wrong. Much of this album is angry and features Eddie Vedder and company in fine, mad-at-the-world form. What separates it from other Pearl Jam efforts is a lack of generic angst that sometimes takes up too much of its music. Instead, there seems to be a different energy focusing the anger and resentment, along with moments of melancholy (“Pendulum”) and pure punk rock attitude (“Mind Your Manners”).
5. Alter Bridge, Fortress: Who would’ve thought a band made from the remains of one of the most despised bands at the turn of the millennium would go on to such acclaim and success? Since its debut almost 10 years ago, Alter Bridge has been able to successfully step out of the shadow of Creed. It’s safe to say that Alter Bridge is no longer merely a side project for the members of Creed when they’re tired of dealing with Scott Stapp. Its latest offering, Fortress, is its crowning achievement thus far. Singer Myles Kennedy is in top form, putting his impressive range and powerful vocals on display throughout the album. Meanwhile, lead guitarist Mark Tremonti plays some of the best leads and solos he’s ever written. “Cry of Achilles” and “Addicted to Pain” are two of the album’s strongest tracks, while the title track is easily its most ambitious.
4. Motorhead, Aftershock: Motorhead’s fans had plenty to be worried about in 2013. The band’s lead singer and founding member, Lemmy Kilmister, had a number of health scares throughout the year, forcing the band to cancel all tours and festival dates so he could recuperate, a consequence of living the rock and roll lifestyle for the last 50 years. Fortunately, the band was able to finish recording its latest album before Lemmy’s health complications arose. The result, Aftershock, is a great album that’s in the classic Motorhead template fans expect, but features more energy, excitement, and dynamics than its last few albums have. “Heartbreaker” and “Queen of the Damned” are excellent riff-heavy songs that belong alongside classic Motorhead tracks like “Ace of Spades” and “Overkill.” Meanwhile, “Dust and Glass” and “Lost Woman Blues” give the listener a taste of the blues as only Lemmy can.
3. Ghost B.C., Infestissumam: This band is a great example of why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. I’ve never been a big fan of most doom or black metal, so when I first saw pictures of Ghost B.C., I was ready to dismiss it entirely and move on to the next band. For whatever reason, I decided to give its music a try, and I was blown away by the dichotomy between its appearance and the sound of its music. While it looks like some sort of occult or shock rock band and its song’s lyrics can evoke a lot of satanic imagery, the structure of its songs musically is more in line with classic rock and even some pop music, like ABBA. This balance is anchored by the utilization of keyboards and the surprisingly smooth vocals from lead singer Papa Emeritus II. Ghost B.C. is quickly becoming one of the hottest bands on the rise, and Infestissumam is a great album that illustrates why it has gained such a large and wide fan base so quickly.
2. Paul McCartney, NEW: You can hardly ever go wrong when you have a former Beatle on any list, but this placement is well deserved. McCartney is a man who has every right to cash in on the legacy he’s created and rest on his laurels. And yet, he keeps churning out new music with an energy not many of his peers half his age have. On NEW, Sir Paul created songs of varying styles, from the reflective (and seemingly autobiographical) “Early Days,” to the fuzzed out, indie dance rocker “Save Us.” What makes these songs work is the strength of McCartney’s songwriting. He may be adapting to newer, popular musical styles, but none of it rings false. Instead of sounding like a desperate attempt to be relevant, McCartney has been able to put his own identifiable stamp on recent trends, and the result is a success.
1. Queens of the Stone Age, …Like Clockwork: Of all the albums I heard last year, …Like Clockwork is one of the few that feels like a real throwback. Instead of trying to create a solid album around a few excellent tracks, Queens of the Stone Age has created a complete album that begs the listener to pull out a big set of headphones and listen to it in its entirety, from beginning to end. All of the songs flow seamlessly from one to the next, giving fans something unique to experience in this digital, singles- focused era of music. “Keep Your Eyes Peeled” and “My God is the Sun” are two of my favorites, but trust me when I say that …Like Clockwork deserves to be heard, uninterrupted, from the first note all the way to the last.
It’s never easy to narrow something subjective like music down to a list, especially when it’s a year-end review of the best albums that came out in a strong year like 2013. It’s always inevitable to end up leaving certain things off the list, no matter how much you may have liked them. Here are a few of the albums that just missed the cut: Death Angel, The Dream Calls for Blood; Anthrax, Anthems (EP); Black Sabbath, 13; Kings of Leon, Mechanical Bull; Trivium, Vengeance Falls.
While 2013 was undoubtedly a very strong year for rock and metal music, 2014 is already shaping up to be just as big. Some of the biggest names in rock and metal have either confirmed or are rumored to be releasing new music within the next 12 months. The groups I’m personally excited about include Tool, Foo Fighters, Slayer (its first album after the death of guitarist Jeff Hanneman), Slipknot (which shockingly broke up with drummer Joey Jordison at the end of the year), Judas Priest, Motley Crue (rumored to be its last album ever), Anthrax (which will have a new guitarist after Rob Caggiano’s sudden departure in 2012), and Mastodon. If any of these bands release their album before the end of the semester, you can be sure to find a review in this column.
Questions? Comments? Requests for a specific album to review? Email me at tenanb400@strose.edu.
