'BILLY TALENT' - BILLY TALENT

In the vain of Bowling for Soup, this album is a superb attempt to inject a bit of fun into the world through the medium of music - this is an example of pop-punk that is actually worth listening to. And what's more, regardless of the mood you're in you can guarantee on feeling better by the end!

The sound is minimal but well produced and, is remarkably tight but without losing any of its personality. Combining a nicely hidden but ever-present melody with a Used-style heaviness this makes for wonderfully pleasant listening.

Lyrically, too, this album is a gem - you can't make out all of the words of courses (when can you nowadays?), but those you can hear are priceless: "There's nothing to lose/ When noone knows your name/ There's nothing to gain/ My notebook will explain" being one such example, from Nothing To Lose. Paradoxically the 'fun'-ness of this album covers many dark and painful subjects - songs titles Lies, The Ex, Living In The Shadows and Voices Of Violence hint at a deeper, less cheery interior than the casual listener may realise.

The end product is a perfectly balanced album that is a pleasure to listen to, and at times is nothing short of beautiful.

4/5

'MANDYLION' - THE GATHERING

This album could be interperated in one of two ways: either The Gathering are an innovative and musically talented band who are simply trying too hard, or they are woefully misguided in their sense of timing and tunefulness. The third option, of coures, is that they're just plain crap. However, it seems fair to say that The Gathering are most certainly not crap. It is clear when listening to Mandylion that there is a lot of talent here. Unfortunately there is a nagging feeling throughout that they are just trying to be clever - constantly adding 'cool' bits to what would otherwise be, with a bit of effort, perfectly good songs. The result is that what could have been an interesting and stimulating album is in fact skin-crawlingly irritating, and at times just downright abrasive.

True, Mandylion is experimental and you can't fault them for trying, and there is no doubt whatsoever that there is a musical leviathan lurking just out of sight beneath the waves; but at the moment it appears to be too busy gazing at itself in the mirrow and doing its hair, to notice the fleet of passenger ships sailing past behind it, filled with tasty young maidens.

Darker and heavier that you might expect, with an element of sludgy doomness and an almost subliminal touch of mechanised industrial clanking thrown in (most notably on the opener Strange Machines), Mandylion demonstrates The Gathering's undeniable potenty. But unfortunately their energies on here are directed in slightly the wrong direction. If you want inspiring but unobtrusive background music, then Mandylion is ideal. On the other hand, if you are looking for an album that you actually want to listen to, you'll find this cringe-inducing to the point of painfulness.

3/5

'VELVET DARKNESS THEY FEAR' - THEATRE OF TRAGEDY


This album opens with the tinkling of a beautifully haunting piano score and the breathtakingly hypnotic tones of a siren, igniting the atmosphere perfectly for what you'd expect to be one of the classic gothic metal albums of all time. First impressions however, can of course be deceptive. While the vocals and piano remain truly magnificent throughout these are clearly Theatre Of Tragedy's only strength. Unfortunately (and I really do mean that, because I really really wanted to be blown away by this album) there is nothing else particularly spectacular on here at all. True, the first 3 or 4 tracks show some promise, but this sort of just drians away and it all gets very boring very quickly.
The sound is flat, the songs are played at that confusing pace where they aren't slow enough to be mournful or depressing, nor fast enough to be arousing or inspiring. After a while it just gets annoying. Musically, too, this is disappointing. There are no raging guitars, and to be honest the majority of the drumming could be played by a 5-year old.

Compounding this is the distinct lack of imagination and passion - the album is so exasperating uniform and monotone that it's almost unbearable. And boy does it go on!!! It seems like it's never going to end! At just over 50 minutes it's not a long album by any stretch, but after the first half hour I was practically comatose.

I really tried to like this album. I wanted to. But I just couldn't do it. Besides the stonker 'Bring Forth Ye Shadow, and the stunning vocals/piano which are present throughout (and even these get boring after 20 minutes or so) there is nothing here to get excited about at all. I tried, I really did, but I'm afraid I just don't have that much patience.

2/5