Album Review: Radiohead's "A Moon Shaped Pool"

RADIOHEAD

*A Moon Shaped Pool*

(XL Recordings)

“This is a low-flying panic attack,” singer Thom Yorke warns early on “Burn The Witch,” the opening track on Radiohead’s latest beguiling work. Indeed, the electronic beats and stringed instruments build to a crescendo of Hitchcockian “Psycho” proportions. Yorke’s laconic delivery belies the melancholy emotional undercurrent present on every good Radiohead composition. The video for the song takes this to the next level with a claymation riff on the British “Wicker Man” mystery/horror legend. Shape-shifting music modes abound on the album: Piano carries "Glass Eyes" and “Daydreaming,” which amounts to a soothing lullaby and ends with deep breathing effects, bordering on snoring. The English band’s subtle style makes its Lollapalooza headlining gig (July 29, 2016 in Chicago’s Grant Park) a head-scratcher, but fans should look forward to “Deck’s Dark,” a slinky uptempo song with stark guitar and drum interplay. “Ful Stop” is the liveliest song featuring a driving bass line and the oft-repeated, ominous line: “You really messed up everything.” Maybe you have, but Radiohead keeps getting it right.

9/10

Album Review: Kvelertak's "Nattesferd"

KVELERTAK

*Nattesferd*

(Roadrunner)

Defying the laws of physics, Norway’s Kvelertak keeps getting better, improving even from the brilliance of “Meir,” the band’s 2103 album that was one of the best heavy metal albums of that year. On its third album, the band crafts the tastiest hooks of any: “1985” is all the proof one needs. A mid-tempo, groovy riff is mined to the core, with an extended instrumental section of one repeating riff spanning minutes--without overstaying its welcome. The ferocity of lead singer Erlend Hjelvik’s gruff vocals have been tempered a tad since “Mier,” to the band’s overall benefit. A wide array of metal instrumental stylings--from the opening hardcore shredding of “Dendrofil for Yggdrasil” to the punk rock of “Bronsegud” to the prog metal epic “Heksebrann”--are given ample room for the band to explore. The Norwegian lyrics may be indecipherable (they may as well be in Klingon), but the musical talent displayed is universal. Kvelertak is simply one of the best metal bands on the planet.

9/10
Link to print version of review, published in the Julu 2016 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine. Click the link and navigate the PDF file to page 28.

Review: "Justice League: Battle For Metropolis," Six Flags Great America

Inside the Hall of Justice (Cyborg in foreground)

I've got a score for you to beat: 192,106. That's the score I racked up on Six Flags Great America's new 4D interactive thrill ride, "Justice League: Battle for Metropolis." This type of indoor ride, although new for the Gurnee, Ill., location, is the latest trend in amusement park marketing--a physical video game experience that feeds into the instant gratification, competitive youth culture.

I've experienced Walt Disney World's similar "Toy Story" attraction, and Six Flags' version amps up the superhero/comic book violence over Disney's more child-centered ride.

The backstory to the ride is this: Superman, Batman and Cyborg need help rescuing Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Flash from Joker and Lex Luthor, along with their henchmen and killer Lexbots. Rider "volunteers" travel through a simulated indoor video game: tracked, self-moving carts holding six riders each whirl around corners and zip in front of video screens. There, riders use "electromagnetic pulse blasters" to take out the bag guys and rescue the good guys and gals. Each rider's score, based on what they hit with their laser pistols, is recorded. The hope is that riders will want to come back again and again to better their scores.

The action of the carts is sufficiently jarring to simulate explosions and other disasters that come riders' ways. The 4D effect is achieved when Joker's laughing gas is sprayed at each cart, and riders can feel the heat of real flame at one point when something blows up. But the best part of the ride occurs when the carts get positioned close to big video screens. There, with the help of 3D glasses, simulated movement is almost too real as riders seemingly zoom down subways and through other inner city locales, all the while letting the lasers fly. Lexbots aggressively approach and exploding virtual debris flies everywhere. It's a genuine thrill.

Joker entertains waiting riders.

The Hall of Justice indoor waiting space for the ride is the most fully realized fictional space in the park. Video cartoons, colorful placards and even an animatronic Cyborg indoctrinate waiting riders to the objectives of the upcoming mission. 

That said, the line is long. I experienced the attraction on Thursday, June 9, 2016, an overcast rainy day. I got into line with my 8- and 10-year-old at 11:30 and we got on the ride at 12:45. On that ride, the lasers, audio and most video screens did not work. We were whisked through the indoor space puzzled by the technical difficulties. Upon getting off the ride, a Six Flags employee allowed us to wait at the front of the line for the glitches to be fixed. Thirty minutes later, we were back on and racking up the points. In all we waited nearly two hours for a short ride.

Oh, and my score (192,106) registered as the 50th percentile score, so you've got a great chance to best me. Good luck.
(Link to my review of Six Flags' Goliath roller coaster)

Hall of Justice

Album Review: Deftones, "Gore"

DEFTONES

*Gore*

(Reprise)

There may not be a groovier or sexier metal band than Deftones. Singer Chino Moreno practically whispers, “There’s a new, strange godless demon awake inside me” shortly after “Prayers / Triangles” begins. Discordant synthesizer (or heavily distorted guitar) takes the soft lead, only to be juxtaposed with a loud--and hard rocking--chorus built around Moreno screaming “Prayers! Triangles!” And so begins Deftones’ eighth album, “Gore,” one that continues to show how far the California band has left behind its “nu metal” roots only to become a major influence of metal in general. Exhibit A: Moreno providing guest vocals on "Embers,” one of the best tracks on Lamb of God’s latest album . As for this effort, “Acid Hologram” features mid-tempo, wall-of-sound guitar that is both slinky and threatening at the same time. Those especially unfamiliar with the band’s style should listen to “Acid Hologram” and “Doomed User” back-to-back. The latter song picks up where the former leaves off, nailing the band’s intoxicating energy and compelling riffage. “Hearts / Wires” plays more like an experimental ballad: “Nothing can save me now / Is what I believe,” Moreno confesses at the start, only to later wail, “Cut through this razor wire / And dine on your heart / Mine ‘til the end.” That’s an apt summary of the band’s sonic appeal.

8/10

Link to print version of the review, in the May issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine:
Click on this link, open the PDF and navigate to page 28.

Album Review: Baroness, "Purple"

Baroness

*Purple*

(Abraxan Hymns)

The latest Baroness album represents a triumphant comeback. After releasing the landmark 18-song double-album *Yellow & Green* in 2012, the band suffered a bus accident while on tour, leading to the eventual departure of two members. The melodic hard rock on the 10-track *Purple* album does not show signs of this past trauma or a divergence of the band’s aesthetic due to its reformation. The band already outgrew its “sludge metal” descriptor albums ago. In fact, this might be the band’s best effort to date. Lead singer/guitarist John Baizley--also an accomplished painter/artist of his own band’s album covers and dozens of other metal bands--exuberantly sings every line above the high-energy guitar-driven tempos. “Shock Me” “Try To Disappear,” “Kerosene” (which starts off with Mastodon-like chiming guitars), “Chlorine & Wine” and “The Iron Bell” are all standout hard-rock tracks, as good as any Baroness has released in the past.  “Fugue” is a beguiling instrumental track, and “If I Have To Wake Up (Would You Stop The Rain?)” is a slow-build ballad that is both melancholy and uplifting.

9/10

Album Review: Sadie And The Stark

Sadie And The Stark

Self-titled, self-released 5-song EP

“Witches”--the first song on a five-track debut EP by local band Sadie And The Stark--is an intriguing introduction to the band’s aesthetics: Lead-singer/guitarist Sadie Rogers’ strong and confident vocal style (not unlike Garbage’s Shirley Manson)  is the centerpiece, as she sings about the thrill of desire, with an underbelly of danger: “I want to taste you” and “You are going to answer for the killing/You are going to get on your knees.” “Apocalypse,” with a more seductive and slower tempo, furthers this theme, with Sadie urging multiple times, “Come on boy, do what you do to me.” A three-piece band ably lays down the backing rhythms behind her vocals. “Two Reasons” is a theatrically delivered breakup ballad with a twinge of country acoustics, and, showing instrumental range, “Black Hearted Lover” uses wide-open, distorted guitar chords and rapid snare shots, along with Rogers’ powerful yodels, to tell one more rocking story of ill-fated lovers.

7/10

Click this link and navigate to page 40 for original print version, published in the March 2016 issue of Illinois Entertainer

Soundcloud link to music

www.sadieandthestark.com

Album Review: Megadeth's "Dystopia"

MEGADETH

Dystopia

(Universal)

On Megadeth’s latest album, Dave Mustaine’s dystopian world view begins with Middle Eastern vocalization and instrumentation that quickly transitions into electric guitar shredding and Mustaine declaring: “Justified obliteration/No one cares anymore.” And that’s just the opening track “The Threat Is Real.” Don’t kill the messenger. Megadeth is here to remind us that the world is going to hell. Mustaine is not giddy about it: he’s upset, and *Dystopia* serves as his latest political/social manifesto, something fans expect along with high-energy thrashing and Mustaine’s trademark sneering. Multiple other tracks (including the title track, “Conquer...or Die!” and “Lying In State”) mine similar pessimism about the current state of the world, with Mustaine declaring on “Fatal Illusion” that “It’s a fatal illusion to think that evil never dies,” a song that also showcases Mustaine’s considerable lead guitar skills alongside Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler’s double-bass assault. On “Post-American World,” Mustaine asks, “If you don’t like where we’re going/Then you won’t like what’s coming next. What will we look like in the post-American world?/ Why cower to all those who oppose the American world?” Spoken like a true patriot.

9/10

Click this link and navigate to page 24 to see print magazine version of review, published in March 2016 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine