Royal Headache- High [Review]

Royal Headache- High

Buy: Official Website 

Genre: punk, garage rock

Apparently, this week's theme is "Bands whose members don't have real names". Papa Emeritus (from Ghost, who I reviewed in my last review) and Royal Headache's Shogun are two of a select few nameless frontmen who are currently trending upwards in the rock world. Royal Headache's new album "High", just came out, three years after their self titled debut, and it gives us 29 more too short minutes of insanely catchy punk nuggets, or, in some cases, insanely catchy slow burning ballads. 

The album starts with a quick punk song and ends with a quick punk song, and hits many things in between, mostly different variations of quick punk songs. This works more often than not, making a cohesive set of songs without suffering from too much similarity. While almost all of the songs come and go in a flash (the longest, bass-anchored ballad "Wouldn't You Know", is still only 4:17), they leave a lasting mark. "My Own Fantasy" opens the album with a look at how different rock 'n' roll life actually is from how a kid in a garage with a practice amp might imagine it to be. "Need You" follows in short order, a Hüsker Dü-esque punk jam featuring an organ adding a nice sense of urgency to an already urgent sounding song. Shogun's repeated cry of "need you, need you, need you" is brilliantly restrained yet desperate. The title track, "High" is another love song, which is what most of the songs here are, and they all hit it spot on. "High"'s primary melody is a bit grating at first, but I grew to enjoy it on repeated listens. 

The bass shines throughout this record. I can't find the bassist's name anywhere, but he does a fantastic job of underscoring every song with a rumbling counterpoint to the somewhat restrained guitars. If there's one thing this record is missing, it's some punch in the guitar sound. I've never been a fan of lo-fi for this reason, I like my guitars (and bass and drums for that matter) to sound massive. This sounds small, like it was recorded in a garage, which I'm sure is exactly what they were going for, it's just not my cup of tea. I do like the spots where the guitars should be more restrained, and are, such as on "Wouldn't You Know", which is definitely a highlight of the album. 

Shogun's vocals don't lack any punch, though, and his range (dynamically, not note range) is outlined brilliantly in the differences between the back to back to back to back  punch of his howl on "Another World", his soulful croon of "Wouldn't You Know" and his sneer followed by his scream on the ferocious "Garbage", which has one of the better basslines I've heard this year. 

Overall, Royal Headache have created a very solid garage punk album, with occasional moments of brilliance and no standout disappointments. Every song will get stuck in your head relentlessly, and it won't come out until you go and listen to the record again. It's short, why not?

Two tracks that get me high: "Wouldn't You Know" and "Garbage"

Overall score: 75/100

Ghost- Meliora [Review]

Ghost- Meliora

Listen: Spotify 

Buy: Official Store, iTunes

Genre: Heavy metal, doom metal, hard rock

Who else was psyched for the newest release from everyone's favorite Satanic theatrical classic heavy metal band whose members don't have names? I know I was! Ghost (also known as Ghost BC for copyright reasons) is a Swedish metal band that sounds as if Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, and post-Watershed Opeth had a beautiful, faux Satanic baby. Their status as "metal" is contested by some metalheads, but I've seen metalheads contest Between the Buried and Me's status as "metal", so we can pretty safely say they have no idea what they're talking about. While Ghost clearly aren't nearly as heavy as bands like BTBAM, they're heavy, and what really matters: they're good. Their first two albums, 2010's "Opus Eponymous" and 2013's "Infestissumam" (the titles of which should give you a solid grip on what kind of band this is), were excellent and received a lot of well deserved praise and attention (including from Dave Grohl, who has actually played with the band), but "Meloria", just released this past week blows both of them out of the water. Papa Emeritus (the lead singer, in his third incarnation) and the Nameless Ghouls (the rest of the band. Seriously.) take classic doom metal, occult lyrics, and pop melodies and merge them into something truly impressive. 

From the opening bell and synth, "Spirit" sounds like the soundtrack to some metaled out Halloween special. It also sounds like it came straight out of the late 70s, in a good way. And finally, as with most Ghost songs, it sounds like *pop*. The incredibly catchy melodies to every song (most notably penultimate track "Absolution") stick in your head and never leave. Papa Emeritus and co. keep both the crunchy riffs and the catchy hooks coming, often at the same time, as in highlight "Cirice", which opens with an Opeth-esque acoustic guitar section that builds with drums and synths before exploding into one of the heaviest riffs this side of "War Pigs" as Papa howls over it "Can you hear the thunder? Can you hear the thunder that's breaking?", before flipping it in the back half of the song to respond "I can feel the thunder! I can feel the thunder that's breaking in your heart."

An acoustic guitar riff that can only be described as beautiful runs opens and runs throughout "He Is", which is basically a Christian rock song, except with the key difference of being dedicated to... Satan. This ain't your mommy's metal. If your mommy listens to metal. She probably doesn't. But if she does, this isn't it. 

Weak points are rare to nonexistent here, the closest we get is the chuggy and downright creepy "Mummy Dust" and the rather forgettable "From the Pinnacle to the Pit", both of which are actually really great. The two interludes "Spöksonat" and "Devil Church" both do their job effectively without making too much of a mark, while the overtly classic rock influenced "Majesty" and the catchy—if slightly overlong—closer "Deus In Absentia" both rock. That sounds over-simplistic, but it's the most accurate way to describe them and the album as a whole. This album ROCKS. 

"Meloria" has already worked its way into my top 10 list of 2015, and while it may not remain there (we've still got new stuff from the Wonder Years, TesseracT, and Kanye West among others coming), it's an extremely enjoyable record. And remember, don't take Ghost too seriously (they sure as hell don't take themselves seriously). Just take it in and make sure to headbang and tell your friends about it. 

Two tracks that might turn you to the side of the Satanic Pope: "Cirice" and "Absolution".  

Overall score: 81/100

Valiska- Repetitions [Review]

Valiska- Repetitions

Genre: ambient, drone, noise

Listen: Bandcamp

As much as I listen to music, I rarely make other associations with it. Generally, when I think of a song, I hear the music, and I see the album artwork. So you can imagine my surprise as throughout the opening trio of tracks of the Calgary based ambient and drone project Valiska's "Repetitions", actual words started popping into my head to describe the music. In the back half of opener "Clearing", with its sparse droning sounds (I can't identify the instrument) the word that came to mind was "serene". While that may seem like an obvious thing to say about a peaceful ambient album, it really does describe the complete feeling of peacefulness that rides over you as you take in the sounds. However, it doesn't seem that "Clearing" has enough steam in the way of ideas to justify its 7:49 runtime. It closes out on a whimper, with some reversed piano, a sound that recurs throughout the record, but without building on the previous repetitions. Judging by the title of the record, the recurring instrumentation was probably intended as a theme, but overall it doesn't do much other than be kind of boring by the end. 

This isn't to say there aren't a few high points. "Glide" which opens with a gorgeous piano line and steadily builds with a type of low horn (french horn, maybe?) providing a very nice counterpoint. The climax of the track features an organ coming in and what it brings with it is chaos. The pieces don't slide together musically, and I'm not sure if it works or not. It's calming and disconcerting at the same time, which is an interesting combination, and one I'm not sure I like. The outro of "Dawn" has a similar effect, with a pulsating bassline that doesn't seem to be exactly in the scale (if there is one) of what's going on with the rest of the song. "Held" has a nice opening organ line, but again devolves into a chaotic sort of half enjoyable/half confusing mess. 

The rest of the album doesn't have much to talk about. It's not bad for background music, but it doesn't demand much attention and it gets pretty boring by the middle of the album, which isn't even particularly long (41 minutes). The chaos doesn't do much for me, the calm parts are either gorgeous or boring, with little in between. 

While it sounds like I hate the album, I definitely didn't, and in fact upon first listening, I enjoyed it. Admittedly, that first listen was while I was also helping to install an air conditioner, so the music was background music, and it didn't stand up on a more concentrated second listen. 

Overall verdict is that while it has nice moments, and overall is a nice listen, it doesn't demand attention, and I can tag it with the damning "background music" label. I may even come back and listen to it more, but after a couple of listens, it doesn't stand up. 

Two tracks I've had on repetition: "Glide" and "Escape"

Overall album score: 56/100

Amy comments or suggestions are completely welcome, you can comment here or email me at sdsweeney56@gmail.com. Music suggestions or your own music you'd like me to review you can also semd there. Thanks for reading!

Fall Out Boy- Take This To Your Grave [Album of the Week]

Fall Out Boy- Take This To Your Grave

   Here's something I'm starting because I've been more interested in writing about (and writing) music recently. Every weekend I'll have my album of the week on here and probably some other places as well, with an indepth track by track review of the album. This week's album is "Take This to Your Grave", Fall Out Boy's 2003 debut album. (yes, it's their debut. EOWYG doesn't count). Wikipedia classifies it as pop-punk and melodic hardcore. You can listen to it here: https://youtu.be/6ULqIJ3p0RU. Fall Out Boy is Andy Hurley on drums, Patrick Stump on guitar and vocals, Joe Trohman on guitar, and Pete Wentz on bass and screams (for the early albums). Pete also writes most of the lyrics. 

 

   They announce their presence quickly on the opener "Tell That Mick He Just Made My List of Things to Do Today" with some slamming chords and then a very nice octave progression, a precursor to how often they use octave slides throughout their entire body of work.  Fairly immature lyrics from Pete, but it was early (he was 24) and they're pretty funny, especially the way Patrick delivers them. His voice was still pretty nasally (more stereotypically pop-punk sounding) at this point, though he clearly has the chops that he's been refining ever since (check out their latest "American Beauty/American Psycho", especially the songs "Novocaine" and "Centuries". He's got PIPES). 

   In the next song, "Dead on Arrival", the "record" motif pops up for the first time in the catalog, in the chorus here, which they love using later on, as evidenced by "I've Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Ides That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth" from 2005's "From Under the Cork Tree" and "Favorite Record" from "American Beauty/American Psycho". This song gets incredibly repetitive, but that's something a lot of pop punk debut records suffer from, and even later records from some of the less original bands out there *cough*Blink-182*cough*. 

   Moving on from unfounded hatred on derivatively terrible bands, we move on to the next song, the classic, the one everyone knows: "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy". The one non "Saturday" song from this album they've played at almost every live show post-hiatus. Except, of course, the tour I saw, because why would they? My own annoyance at setlists aside, this is truly one of the greatest pop punk songs ever written, from that opening a capella (which Patrick was opposed to, I think we're all glad he went with it) to the quick power chords from Joe, to Pete's rumbling bass. Iconic, really.

   "Saturday". Fall Out Boy loves this song, and I'm not entirely sure why. Don't get me wrong, it's a great song, but it's not a "close every show for the rest of our career with it" level great song. Maybe that honor should've gone to "Grand Theft Autumn". Pete does provide some really great screams in the background, which he does quite a bit on this album and the next two, with a bonus 2 line appearance on "West Coast Smoker" from 2008's "Folie á Deux". I like them, though I'm a big metal fan, so screams/growls/screeches don't bother me much anymore. I used to hate 'em though, don't ask about the first time I heard a Black Crown Initiate song... 

   Entering the middle of albums, especially pop punk ones, can always be a risky business. "Homesick at Space Camp", the next track, is decent, but nothing extraordinary. It kind of passes by without much ado. I will say that the bridge, with it's "these friends are, new friends are golden" refrain is very nice and can definitely hit close to home for a lot of the angsty pop punk crowd (including myself). The lull doesn't last, as the following song (with the charming title of "Sending Postcards From a Plane Crash (Wish You Were Here)") wastes no time in introducing itself with more angst: "I am such a sucker, and I'm always the last to know". While we're on the topic of words, let's  take a second to memoralize pre-hiatus Fall Out Boy song titles. This one especially is up there with my personal favorites. It gets the point across perfectly, as do the lyrics, which again, fit perfectly in to many angsty teenagers lives, again including mine. Pete Wentz definitely has a gift for capturing certain things in his lyrics that manifested itself later in spades, but here there are occasional glimpses of the genius. Bonus points here go to the slightly bluesy breakdown and solo. 

   The next song, which some post-hiatus fans may recognize from a more recent song, "Chicago Is So Two Years Ago" also passes relatively without notice, other than the bridge section, which was sampled ten years later on Fall Out Boy's own "Save Rock and Roll". It's not even that great of a melody, though the way Pete's bass comes in under it is pretty cool. It does have a very cool ending transition (I'm a sucker for song transistions) to my favorite song on the album, "The Pros and Cons of Breathing" which starts off with a ridiculously and surprisingly emotive chord progression, flows into a catchy verse, and then makes it's way into Pete's most relatable chorus yet: "I want to hate you half as much as I hate myself". While they don't fit in musically as well with bands like My Chemical Romance and Panic! at the Disco, just listening to some of their early lyrics (and looking at early Pete Wentz, who brings the screams back here) it's easy to see how they got slammed with the "emo" label, which unfortunately tends to also shut most of the critical public off on them, as well as the other two bands I mentioned, who are both very solid bands (MCR slightly moreso than Panic!).

   Fall Out Boy started their career off in the Chicago hardcore scene, which wasn't particularly acceptive of their more melodic and poppy direction. Here in "Grenade Jumper" they tribute their biggest and "only friend" whose name is -surprise!- Chris. It follows a pretty standard pattern for songs on this album (and many other pop punk songs, and I'm guilty of this as well on a couple songs) with the bar or two of one instrument to start before the entire band slams in together, but it has heart. We're entering the last parts of the album now, which can be another dead spot, and unfortunately they fall victim to it. They got through the middle with solid music, but as we enter here? The next song here is "Calm Before the Storm" and I'll be honest, before it came up on my listen through of the album to write this thing, I completely forgot this song existed. Listening to it again, it's not hard to see why. It has no real hook, and I can't remember the chorus melody while I'm literally still listening to the song. Some Pete screams come in to try to salvage it, but they can't really do much. This is a pretty short album (39 minutes), but I think overall it would've been better without this song. The next song's title ("Reinventing the Wheel to Run Myself Over") is promising, but it's another letdown. One of the best lines of the album in "18 going on extinct" is here in this song, but there's not much of a hook, and while the chord progression is decent, it's nothing really special. They definitely hit a late in the album slump here, but it's ok because "The Patron Saint of Liars and Fakes" is here. This has one of the best introductions in Fall Out Boy's catalog (odd since it closes the album) and a rather big sense of urgency and weight helps bring the album to a nice close, along with a great hook that makes you forget those last two songs ever even happened. Let's not ignore the absolutely gorgeous scream that leads into the last chorus, and the heaviness in the final chord that leaves you wanting nothing but more. 

      Overall a very good album. A couple of missteps, but nothing too terrible, and as pop-punk songs, they're gone pretty quickly and you can get to the next journey. If you don't know Fall Out Boy, check 'em out on Spotify, YouTube, iTunes, etc. and go see shows and such. They're one of my favorite bands, so I hope you guys like them. 

If you liked this album, you may enjoy: Paramore, My Chemical Romance, All American Rejects

Top pair: The Pros and Cons of Breathing, Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy

Album score: 68/100

I hope everyone enjoyed reading, if you have any comments on the album or the review, please comment and tell me. Next week I'll be writing about Muse's "The 2nd Law", so stick around for that. If you have any suggestions for an album I should review, please tell me and thanks for reading!

Mission Statement

Hey, I'm Simon. I'm in high school, I live in Pittsburgh, etc. On here I'm basically just going to randomly select an album I like every week, and write an in depth review of it, usually track by track.  New Album of the Week posts'll usually go up every weekend. Every post will have suggestions for similar artists at the bottom, as well as the two best songs from the album (Top Pair) and an overall score. 

In addition, I'll have 2-5 shorter reviews up every week for brand new albums that week.

That's basically it, I hope everyone enjoys the reviews. I'm always open for suggestions of music I should check out, so please comment here or on Instagram @sdsweeney56.