King Diamond: The Puppet Master

Artist: King Diamond

Album: The Puppet Master

Year: 2003

Line-Up:

              King Diamond- Vocals

              Livia Zita- Vocals (Backing)

              Matt Thompson- Drums

              Hal Patino- Bass

              Andy LaRocque- Guitars, Keyboards

              Mike Wead- Guitars

Sub-Genre: Heavy Metal

Few people in the metal world put as much thought or efforts in their works as King Diamond. With his Alice Cooper inspired theatrics comprising of horror stories, King has put down album after album of high quality heavy metal. Which brings us to the topic King's 12^th output titled The Puppet Master. Continuing on the legacy of The Eye, Them and Abigail, The Puppet Master is a cleverly crafted horror story with equally well composed music to back it up.

Among the technical performances, King is in good form. His trademark wails are toned down, but his use of mid range is very effective creating a complex mash up of vocals. The back up vocals by Livia are also very nicely done. Guitar work is great as usual on a King Diamond album and LaRoque must be appalauded for an impressive lead performance. The album consists of 12 tracks which tell the story of a guy and his girlfriend who attend a puppet show and then are captured by the puppet master and turned into puppets themselves. Cheesy and silly? Oh well it might seem so, but believe me, King can scare the shit out of most people from the silliest stories as he did on Them or Voodoo and does it again so effectively on this record. The music is composed such that fans of the band might immediately identify and connect with. Let us face it folks, King Diamond was never the biggest of experimenters in sound and rightly so for his music has always been crafted cleverly enough and tailored to his needs to match his lyrics and themes.

The album is highly consistent and rarely does a moment of mediocrity spring up. The tracks are catchy along with the mild progressive nature of the music. The atmosphere is quite dark and sad, if not very scary like that was the case with Abigail. Among the tracks, the first five tracks are absolote gems. The best of the bunch has to be the dark and complex Emerencia which contains an excellent vocal perofrmance by King. So Sad is a surprisingly good ballad featuring a duet between King and Livia. Blood To Walk is a weaker track compared with the rest of the album with a relatively very simple structure and lack of proper atmosphere.

The album is another stellar addition in the King's catalog with such gems as The Eye, Abigail, Them. The excellent storyline, though cheesy and silly at thought, is presented with a perfection making the listener deeply absorbed and involved in it. Bottom-line; The Puppet Master lives up to the legacy of the King and is a must listen for all metal heads. Those who haven't heard of the King (though how this may have happened is beyond me) are also adviced to listen to this one as it is serve as an excellent introduction to the dark, bloodcurdling work of the King.

Final rating: 96/100

   

Rammstein: Mutter

Artist: Rammstein
Album: Mutter
Year: 2001
Line-Up:
                Till Lindemann- Vocals
                Richard Kruspe- Guitars
                Paul Landers- Guitars
                Christoph Schneider- Drums
                Christian Lorenz- Keyboards
                Oliver Riedel- Bass
Sub-Genre: Industrial Metal

Controversial German industrial metal band Rammstein's full length, Mutter, is a collossal effort full of powerful and bombastic songwriting which is energetic, catchy and as a whole is a barell of fun to listen. The music on this album, though heavier than the last record, is typical for Rammstein; a crossover of groove metal with synthesizers and some elements of dance music. Where this might not be among the better news to begin with, the band absolotely burns its way through into your ears with a set of 11 meticulously written and powerfully executed tracks. The high point of the album is the simple yet energetic approach of songwriting which remains consistently high throughout the duration of the album. The highlight among the performances is vocalist Till Lindemann who with his powerfull operatic baritone voice gives the band its unique identity. He breathes fire into the stellarly composed songs increasing the power of the music multifold. The songs are short, cachy, to the point and are given full room to develop. Mostly the songs tend to be midpaced with around four or five riffs providing their backbone. The riffs are arranged in a manner so cogent that rarely does a track feel repetitve or insipid. The lyrics, though in German, are very deeply written, if some effort is taken to have them translated.

Highlights, if I start listing them out, will turn out to be the entire record. Never-the-less, the ones that really stand out from the bunch are the bombastic opener Mein Herz Brennt featuring a strong vocal performance from Till and an epic synthsizer melody in the chorus, the groovy, moody and haunting Ich Will, the darkly sarcastic Spieluhr, and the raging Adios. The thrashy blitzkrieg of Adios might just be one of the best tracks they have written. The title track is a sad and depressing song featuring a very emotive performance by Lindemann. The closer Nebel is a softer song, a stark contrast from the rest of the album which once again features some of the finest vocal work by Lindemann. Rein Raus and Zwitter are the low points for the record, at-least compared with the highlights.

The album is yet another stellar addition into the Rammstein cataloque. The record, with its simple and energetic compositions, is a must listen for all fans of heavy metal music especially for the fans of the more melodic spectrum of the genre. The german lyrics might be a put of for some, but it is an aquired taste and adds to the teutonic aura of that album.

Final rating: 96/100

Kreator: Hordes Of Chaos

Artist: Kreator
Album: Hordes Of Chaos
Year: 2007
Line Up:
              Mille Petrozza: Guitars, Vocals
              Ventor: Drums
              Christian Giesler: Bass
              Sami Yli-Sirnio: Guitars
Sub-Genre: Thrash Metal

Kreator's twelfth  full length Hordes Of Chaos is a raw, angry and visceral record, a typical one for Kreator full of heavy riffs, face melting solos, powerful and technical drumming. The album is recorded live in the studio, the first time for Kreator since the iconic Pleasure To Kill. This publicity has caused many longtime fans to expect an album of the Pleasure To Kill caliber and resulting in many of them to being disappointed.

Where this album is nowhere compared to Pleasure To Kill both in terms of sound and composition quality, it is quite a force in the Kreator catalog. It has been 21 years since Kreator recorded Pleasure To Kill and since then there has been many changes in the band's music and ideas. Many of the ideas and changes like their experimentation with Gothic music in the 90s are reflected in the album's music. This album merges many of their melodic experiments with their traditional face shattering thrash. I might not hesitate to add that this, so far is their most melodic record till date. But where the record might be melodic, Kreator uses this melodic approach to create an angry, extreme and tense atmosphere which has been absent in the band's music since 1990. Technically this album is just fantastic. The guitar work, both riff and lead work, is just spot on. No where in the realm of thrash does there exist any guitarist better than Mille Petrozza, and on this album he proves just why. Ventor outclasses some of the best in the business behind the kit and gives a tight and technical performance. The production is a kind of let down. The rhythm guitar could be more crunchier, though it might be giving the album a required raw feel.

The consistency of the album is fairly good. kreator maintains a good variety in the songs like straight forward thrashers, mid paced numbers, and more complex multi-sectioned songs. the main highlight is the quality of songwriting which is very high and successfully merges the raw, brutal, in your face thrash with the more melodic elements. The album is strong in it's share of highlights like the highly catchy, multi-sectioned title track or the high-speed straight forward basher Warcurse, or the more experimental Amok Run. Similarly there are a few mishits as well. Demon Prince doesn't quite stand out and we would have expected a much better end to the album, To The Afterborn isn't quite inspiring as well.

This album is heads on better than the last two albums, both of which were highly competent thrash metal records. The songwriting which manages to be diverse yet bringing forth a raw and visceral energy and sounding quite traditional and primitive makes the album very effective. Believe me if you like Kreator and are a fan of their 80s material you will not be disappointed.

Final rating: 85/100