(Bear with me, first post. I will grudgingly accept post criticisms.)

This is a musical genre I’ve really enjoyed for the last 5 years or so. Wikipedia describes it as heavy metal with symphonic elements. I prefer the ones with female vocalists with a classical sound, near operatic sometimes.

It started with a haunting ballad from the soundtrack of Daredevil (of all places) and I just fell in love with Amy Lee’s voice. Then a driving duet on the same album, a combination of heaven and hell, with pounding guitars,  angry rap-like lyrics, and Amy’s angelic sound wrapping it up. I was hooked. Since then, I’ve sought out more like it. I find that I’m drawn to the sheer energy of the music as well as the smooth vocals. I tend to steer clear of the growly, “Cookie Monster” vocals, although I’ll make exceptions. Here are some of the bands that have captured my fancy.

Beautiful Sin – (Norway? Belgium?) I don’t much about this band – the wiki is sparse, too  – but this is one where I like the instruments more than the vocals. This works
out fine for me, since they have long instrumental sections.

Metalwaves – Video here
Take Me Home – Link

Delain – (Netherlands) Founded by a member of Within Temptation. I discovered them (or they discovered me!) when I started following Amy Lee on Twitter
@AmyLeeEV and Delain followed me. Some songs do feature the growly vocals, but I can get past it. Seems they’ve collaborated with a lot of the other bands on
my list here (Nightwish, Leaves’ Eyes, Epica) The singer’s voice is lovely.

Sever  (features a chanting choir)   Delain – Sever (Live)

See Me In Shadow  See Me In Shadow (unplugged)
Pristine       Pristine

Edenbridge – (Austria) 7 albums so far. They have some of those funky harp sounds  in the background.

Shine (this song makes me think of Europe – The Final Countdown) Shine

Solitaire – I think this one is too new (July 2010) to have youtube videos. Has some great frantic drums, all the right pieces.

Evanescence – (Little Rock, AR) Of course, they’ve enjoyed mainstream success where no one else really has. I’ve seen them live twice – they put on a decent show. Amy Lee is really the
heart of the band, other members have changed up quite a bit over just 2 (TWO!) studio albums. The piano and Lee’s vocals are really what set them apart for me.
My Immortal just wrenches my heart.

Whisper – There’s a version of this song with a crescending (crescendoing?) choir at the beginning, but doesn’t have the chant at the end. My Dream: If I could splice the beginning of “Whisper 2000″ onto the studio version Fan-made video

Lacrymosa -  (music set to Final Fantasy VIII movie)

Lacuna Coil - (Italy) This was the first band I found after Evanescence. They seem unusual in this genre in that most songs have both male and female vocals. The male part is often
angry-sounding, but not actually growly. Cristina’s vocals are also very nice. They have at least 2 songs as DLC on Rock Band, and my wife hates playing them
because of the weird rhythms.

Our Truth (love this song, but the vocals are crazy hard to mimic on RB)  Our Truth
Swamped (my favorite LC song)  Lacuna Coil – Swamped
I’m Not Afraid

Leaves’ Eyes – (Norway/Germany) These folks have an almost medieval sound.

Senses Capture (is that a bass drum?)

Vinland Saga (from a concept album about the discovery of the Americas by Leif Erikson. I dare you not to fall in love with this song.)

Nightwish – (Finland) – Wikipedia is saying this is Finland’s most successful band with 5 million album sales. Can that be right? There was a bit of controversy in that they essentially fired the lead singer and got a new one.

The original one was trained in opera, the newest one has only been on the latest studio album. (I really like the new one, but the old stuff is good, too.)

Amaranth - this is my song du jour, at least a couple times a day. No idea what the song’s about, just like the sound.

Within Temptation – (Netherlands) – I would be tempted to say that they are a more angry sounding group, but that may be unfair. No growly vocals, and I feel like the band as a whole is very talented. (The ballads are not angry, by the way.)

What Have You Done (I can not get enough of this song, it’s a great driving song)

Our Farewell – a ballad, more piano *swoon*

Xandria – (Germany) These songs really exemplify the genre, IMO, although I’d probably classify the guitar parts as more hard rock than metal. It’s a very polished sound.

Save My Life – Video

Sisters of the Light – (has a belly dance vibe)

I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner, but I just set up a Symphonic Metal station on Pandora, adding all these groups into it. Oh, so nice. Please, though, share your favorites with me!  (Sorry, Susan M, Opeth rocks, but I need the female vocals.)

Just One Day
http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=63049982,t=1,mt=video

Hello Park City, Salt Lake City, and surrounding Mormon Townships.  Tonight, in your honor, we are all wearing undergarments.  Undergarments of black leather…. It’s a little hot.

-Kevin Griffin, BTE frontman, October 1, 2009

BTE rocked the Star Bar in Park City tonight and absolutely killed.  It was Kevin’s birthday, so there was cake on the pool table and Howie Day joined the set as a birthday present.  Howie sang “Live Again” from BTE (above), then a song from his own new album then his hit song “Collide” (below).

If you haven’t seen this band live you are absolutely missing out on one of the best things in life.  If you have a chance to see them (especially if that opportunity happens to be in New Orleans), do not pass go, do not collect $200, just go.  Now.

Third Eye Blind is a great band that has had a long absence from the scene, at least as far as creating anything new is concerned. Their last major album, Out Of The Vein was a work of genius that mostly fell on deaf ears, largely because it had little or no marketing or publicity behind it. Three songs from that album in particular, “Crystal Baller”, “My Hit and Run” and the wonderfully unique “Palm Reader” merit special attention, but the album is consistently good throughout, and is another reason for devotion to this trend-setting bay area band that, after three studio albums, can still lay claim to being one of the best bands out there.

Now they are back with a new album entitled Ursa Major which will be released in August. A single is available now on iTunes. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Band of Skulls is a new 3-piece british band that has recently released its debut album, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey.  You can listen to the whole album on their website.  This band is getting a lot of attention right out of the gate and for good reason.  Bassist/vocalist Emma Richardson looks and sounds like a young Chrissy Hynde (but hotter).  Guitarist/vocalist Russell Marsden sounds like a cross between Caleb Followill and Jack White (but hotter).  Drummer Matt Hayward is intense without being overwhelming (but he’s not quite so hot).  This is definitely a new band you will want to check out and will keep listening to for a long time to come.  They are going to be huge (remember, you heard it here first).

DCFC blew into town Monday and played at Thanksgiving Point in a beautiful outdoor setting under skies that cleared just in time for the show.

The band (which, let’s face it, has the worst name since Toad the Wet Sprocket) is touring in support of their new album, Narrow Stairs, and did an interview with the SL Tribune, found here.  After reading the interview, I found this quote describing the new album a bit annoying:

“I really feel we made a mess,” said guitarist Chris Walla, with glee in his voice. “It’s kind of bloody. It’s really freaking weird. It doesn’t feel like more of the same. You have to beat the s— out of a guitar to make it sound good.”

Well that may very well be, Chris, but it always makes me wonder when bands describe their new material as a complete departure from the old.  What are fans supposed to make of this?  “We don’t care if you liked our previous sound, we’re doing something completely different—-so go screw yourselves!”  That’s at least one possible interpretation of the dumb-ass things that bands sometimes say in describing a new record.  Wouldn’t it be wiser to make some attempt to bring the fans with you on your musical journey?

Thankfully, however, the new album is neither a bloody mess nor freaking weird.  It is somewhat different from previous efforts, but the difference is mainly due to a new emphasis on electric guitar and bass versus the keyboard and acoustic guitar driven songs from previous albums.  This album may also require a little more patience on the part of listeners (the first single clocks in at almost nine minutes) but it is nonetheless very recognizable as DCFC, though they seem to be in an even more morose mood than usual (and this is a band that already holds the American record for consecutive pop songs about death).  After a few listens, though, I think most fans will find the new album to be on par with Transatlanticism and Plans, both of which are very good albums (I especially like Plans).  Following up a hit album is always tricky, and some of the “freaking weird” rhetoric may be designed to head off comparisons. 

In any event, DCFC comes into this tour encumbered with the portentious fact that Narrow Stairs is apparently now the top selling album in the country.  And yet, somehow the band was able to live up to expectations.  Frontman Ben Gibbard has the reputation of a rock and roll poet, writing songs (contrary to most songwriters) lyrics first, then crafting the music around the words, which are rarely organized in any format recognizable as a traditional pop song.  To me, this has always given many of his songs a strange, anticlimactic feel, as if they have no definable chorus.

A perfect example is “What Sarah Said” from Plans:

Another great example is “Marching Bands of Manhattan” from Plans:

As you can see, DCFC manages to turn its quirkiness into a virtue:  They don’t sound like anyone else and, in today’s music market, that’s never a bad thing.  Before the final song of the show, Ben mentioned that they hadn’t played this particular song in some time, and they were going to now play it the way it used to be played when the band appeared at Kilby Court years ago.  Kilby Court!!!  Thinking about this band in it’s current glory appearing at the tiny, godforsaken Kilby Court is mindboggling now, but it’s good to be reminded that all bands pretty much start out playing the same dives, and it’s good to see that some do grow up and move on to big, beautiful venues with actual sound systems and intoxicatingly cool light displays.  All in all, this was a very good show by a band that continues to make some rather unexpectedly good music.  

Salt Lake City gave Augustana its usual adoring welcome last Friday at the Avalon, but this concert was markedly different from the others that have featured this great young band from Greenville, Illinois and San Diego, California.

Augustana scored a massive radio-friendly hit with the song Boston from their major label debut All the Stars and Boulevards and seemed destined for top-40 stardom by repeating that same piano-ballad formula with front-man Dan Layus emoting over the keys.  It might have been a little boring, but it would have worked.  Trouble is, the band had some other things in mind.  Seems like on the way to their next album, they went off-script and off-road and ended up getting a little bluegrass stuck in their wheels.  This is not a band that would have covered a tune by Old Crow Medicine Show in the past, but that’s exactly what they did, playing Down Home Girl  like maybe they wrote the thing.  The new album, Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt, released April 29th, indeed has a more down-home feel to it and the show reflected that with some of the more mainstream rock tunes from the previous album, like “Hotel Roosevelt” and “Bullets” failing to even make an appearance.

  But the crowd didn’t mind that one little bit, obligingly cheering for all the new stuff and even singing along when the band played the new album’s first single “Sweet and Low.”  The transformation that the band appears to be making is perhaps summed up best by guitarist Chris Sachtleben’s slide guitar in “Where Love Went Wrong”, and by the darkness in songs like “Dust,” which rely heavily on Jared Palomar’s bass and feature lines like:

So go on and tear it up,
black and cold with the dust,
’cause i believed in the lord,
but he don’t show up anymore.

Not exactly bubble gum pop.  But then things have changed since this band wrote their last album.  Layus has a baby now, and the whole band just seems more mature.  Layus used to introduce Palomar as “the Asian Sensation,” and in one show, Juan, the road manager, staggered on stage to sing with the band and wale away on a cymbal.   Hi-jinks like that have now been replaced by group singalongs, where Palomar, keyboardist John Vincent and even drummer Justin South leave their instruments and gather round the mic to supply vocals for an unplugged number.  Even the encore has changed:  When the band came back onstage to wrap up the show, instead of playing a few of the old favorites, they jammed to a Dylan song.  This is not a band that’s planning on taking the obvious road, but it is a band that knows where it’s headed and is on a really enjoyable journey.  Ride along for an evening if you get the chance.

 

 

 Last night was the Elbow/Air Traffic show at the Depot in SLC.  I can’t begin to tell you how incredibly amazing this show was (Oh, Ok, I’ll try).  

The Depot is such a great concert venue; everything you could possibly want in a club, but because it’s 21+ only it doesn’t get a lot of newer bands, which is a real tragedy because all the other music clubs in town suck a**.  So it was a rare treat to see bands like Elbow and Air Traffic playing there.  

 

Opening act Air Traffic took the stage promptly at 8:00 (thank you Depot–all you other music clubs: go thou and do likewise!) and, though they look like they’re about 17 (actually, they’re all about 22), they have a mature presence on stage and a very confident and professional air even when things go wrong, as they did last night.  Guitarist Tom Pritchard’s guitar cable went on the fritz about halfway through the band’s second number, and it took until the end of the song for the tech to figure out the problem and get a new one out onstage.  The band soldiered on, however, even making a joke about the absent guitar part in the song.  Pritchard gamely laughed along, claiming that the song sounded better without him (it didn’t).  

This is an extremely talented band, and even though the hall was barely half full when they played their set, they were absolutely electrifying once they had all instuments hooked up and working.  Vocalist/keyboardist Chris Wall, a true budding superstar, leads the band on keyboard in most numbers, picking up his Fender Telecaster only a couple of times per set and although heaven knows a keyboard-driven rock band can become a little precious at times, Air Traffic staves off that possibility with hard work from Pritchard, Jim Maddock on bass and David Jordan on drums.  

The climax of the set came via a little tune called “No More Running Away” in which the band shows its versatility by turning into a drum corp featuring Pritchard and Maddock beating floor toms with feverish intensity throughout most of the song.  The band saved its biggest hits for last, finishing up with an amazing new song, apparently entitled “Take Hands,” then “Charlotte” and “Shooting Star” to end the set.  This band deserves all the attention it gets on this tour, but there are a lot of Air Traffic fans under 21 (my kids among them) so I told the band after the concert that they should utilize an all-ages venue next time, and they will seell a lot more tickets.  They agreed and said they would be back soon (hopefully next time they will also have more merch than their album–guys, get a clue: you get a lot of money from merch).  They have four more dates with Elbow, including:

(Heads up Supergenius and Susan, they’re coming your way)  Then they kick off their own tour beginning at Spaceland in L.A. and ending at the Rheinkultur Festival in Germany in July.  Go see them!

Elbow hit the stage to a significantly larger crowd after only a short delay and immediately grabbed attention with “Starlings” featuring nearly the entire band on trumpet.  There’s nothing like several people hitting a high, sustained trumpet blast a few feet away from you to get a show started right.  That led into the “Mirrorball” which showcased keyboardist (and producer) Craig Potter’s talents and, you guessed it, the obligatory mirrorball throwing sparkles of light dancing about the room.  The band were also supported by a couple of lovely backup singers/dancers who played violin on several of the numbers from the bands new release The Seldom Seen Kid which, oddly, the band had no copies of.  Lead vocalist, guitarist, raconteur and all-around hale-fellow-well-met Guy Garvey kept things entertaining during song changes by constantly asking the audience how they were doing and chatting about the music, the band members and life in general (BTW, if you are the woman in the mezzanine who kept screaming “Mexican Standoff!” at every opportunity, please, please, do us all a favor and seek professional help).  Garvey’s Fender Stratocaster, which he plays like he’s tuning a fiddle, has a very unique effect (sort of like a swarm of angry bumble bees trapped in a drainpipe) but his voice is one of the most compelling in rock music today and his stage presence is always engaging and, at times, hilarious.  Garvey credited his friend Richard with this joke:

I went to my doctor and he told me I had to stop masturbating. I said, “Why doc? It’s brilliant, I love it, why do I have to stop?” The doctor looked at me kind of funny and said, “Because I’m trying to examine you.”

One of the major highlights of the evening was, of course, “Grounds for Divorce” in which Garvey helpfully warns that he’s “been working on a cocktail called ‘Grounds for Divorce,’” and which features incredible guitar and bass work by stunning guitarist Mark Potter and bassist Pete Turner.  Garvey bangs on a pipe throughout and Richard Jupp, who was brilliant on drums the entire night, holds the whole thing together.  At the end of the night, Garvey led into “One Day Like This” by asking the audience to sing along to its outro.  It really gives you a warm feeling to hear a room full of people belting out: “Throw those curtains wide, one day like this a year will see me right!”

But that was nothing compared to what came next.  Garvey informed the audience that, in order to get an encore, we would have to perform a song of our own choosing, but said we couldn’t choose any Elbow songs and “no f***ing Oasis.”  He asked for suggestions:  “It’s A Small World?”  “Never heard of it.”  “Row Row Row Your Boat?”  “Too easy.”  “Back in Black?”  “Only if this were Australia, that’s their national anthem isn’t it?”  “Killing Me Softly?”  “They did that in New York.” (!?)  Finally, one of the backup singers suggested “Lean On Me,” which was acceptable.  So then, believe it or not, the audience serenaded the band with “Lean On Me” in order to get an encore.  Yes, this band is well-loved. 

[Epilogue:  Earlier in the day, my wife Robin encountered Garvey on a shopping spree in her store.  She helped him pick out an outfit for his girlfriend who Garvey described as "a beautiful redhead with pale skin, piercing blue eyes and large breasts."  According to Robin, he is just as genuine and fun in real life as he is onstage.] 

With 2008 only one quarter over, this is the album of the year, the one everyone else will be shooting for–and probably missing.  Remember, you heard it here first.

Elbow is a band from Manchester that has made some fantastic music in the past and has a new album (their fourth), The Seldom Seen Kid, which has just been released in the UK and comes out in the States in April.

They will also be starting a tour in April which will take them to SLC in May where they will be in my favorite venue, The Depot. This will be a show not to be missed. “Grounds For Divorce” is a song from their new album:

And here is one of their best songs, “Switching Off” from a previous album, Cast of Thousands: