RockRoast

Tools of Destruction (2005)
Thunderstone

Tools of Destruction is a masterpiece of power metal. It’s what all the lesser power metal albums want to be when they grow up. Aggressive, emotional, and held together by soaring melodies and tasty guitar riffs, this has everything metal fans celebrate.

First and foremost, the songwriting didn’t take a backseat to guitar histrionics, a crime power metal is often guilty of. “Welcome to the Real” may be my favorite song of all time, sporting a great atmosphere, a fantastic melody, and a laudable vocal by Pasi Rantanen. “Another Time” is the token ballad, mixing acoustic and electric guitar to great effect. And the keyboard-driven closer, “Land of Innocence,” is one of the most epic pieces of music I’ve ever had the privilege of hearing. These three tracks may be the high points on the record, but each of the other songs is in close contention for this honor.

Though it’s not strictly a concept album, Tools of Destruction’s lyrics have a certain cohesiveness. Each song describes some part of sin, addiction, remorse, despair and hope. Ultimately, the album comes off as being lyrically unified, though the order of the songs doesn’t seem to tell a clear story.

Everything about Tools of Destruction is well-done. Each of the five musicians gives a great performance, the songwriting is strong, the melodies are memorable, the production is excellent, and the lyrics are inspiring. “Land of Innocence,” the final track, sees each band member at his best, delivering a brilliantly bittersweet ending to the album. It’s the kind of thing that, after you’re done listening to it, you just kind of sit there silently for a few seconds and take a deep breath. It’s unbelievably refreshing.

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (2000)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor

This is not an easy album to describe. It’s good, though, I can promise you that. Antennas to Heaven is composed of four lengthy tracks (the shortest is almost nineteen minutes long) presented in complex arrangements. True to the post-rock genre, the songs are all structured around repetition and gradual modification of their themes.

But, surprisingly, despite the lengthy and repetitive nature of the music, the songs seem pass you by pretty quickly. Perhaps the first listen of Antennas to Heaven will leave you feeling confused, as it’s nearly an hour and a half of slow-paced, moody instrumental music and occasionally abrasive sounds. Give the record another chance, however, and you’ll find yourself being drawn into the long, slow-building crescendos to Godspeed’s masterful, cinematic peaks. The band obviously know how orchestrate a dramatic climax, and they demonstrated those skills several times on each of these four songs.

It’s long, and it’s probably boring the first time, but Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven is undeniably worth the time required to properly appreciate it. And most importantly, it gets better every time you hear it.

Tyranny (1998)
Shadow Gallery

Tyranny is one of my favorite concept albums. It tells the story of a weapons designer who comes to his senses and realizes he’s building bombs that will kill thousands of innocent people. He becomes crippled by disillusionment until he meets a similar soul on the internet who helps him make sense of all the corruption. He falls in love with her and the end of the album sees them still determined to make a positive change in the world, even as they flee evil government agents.

It may sound cheesy in writing, but the music makes it work with minimal lameness. After a brief instrumental introduction, “War For Sale” kicks the album off with an energetic, guitar-driven anthem. The climactic eight-minute “New World Order” boasts a dueling vocal between Shadow Gallery’s Mike Baker and Royal Hunt’s D.C. Cooper. The final track, “Christmas Day,” imparts inspiring words of hope over a beautiful piano melody. Most importantly, Tyranny showcases Shadow Gallery’s characteristic melodies. Bassist Carl Cadden-James is responsible for most of the vocal lines on this record, and Tyranny stands as a shining example of his talent for writing strikingly unique and memorably emotional melodies. All other elements of Shadow Gallery’s sound are present, accounted for, and at their finest.

Shadow Gallery’s work sounds derivative at times and it could be easy to label them as a generic prog metal ripoff band. But Tyranny (as well as its sequel, 2005’s Room V) sets the band apart as legitimate contributors to the genre. I look forward to the third installment of the storyline, hopefully due out in the next year or two.