Nightwish after a show in Australia.

Bird’s Eye View of the Band

Nightwish is from Finland. You could argue that their symphonic metal paved the way for Evanescence – for better or worse – by pioneering the “big guitar plus clear-voiced female singer” sound. They use a lot of orchestration, with tons of changes in volume and a few meter and tempo switches. The moods also shift quite a bit from song to song.

Singer Situation

Current singer Anette Olzon isn’t the original Nightwish singer. She succeeds Tarja Turunen, who had a classical singing style and a really powerful set of lungs. Turunen is pretty much a symphonic metal archetype. Her ouster from the band in 2005 caused a lot of angst for gothy types, especially when band leader/keyboardist/composer Tuomas Holopainen gave Olzon the gig. Turunen is a physical force that Olzon can’t match – but Olzon is more versatile and emotive. She also appeals to a wider audience (yet another reason some longtime fans are deepening their frown lines). Imaginaerum is the first Nightwish album that Holopainen wrote specifically for Olzon’s range and style.

Surprise, Surprise

Imaginaerum peaked at 27 on the U.S. Billboard chart, eliciting a huge “how the hell did that happen?” from me. I love this band in both incarnations … but symphonic metal is not exactly a sound popular in America. Holopainen calls the album “Hollywood landscape metal.” Some might call it cheesy because of its crazy orchestration and poetic lyrics. To me, though, “cheesy” is often code for “I couldn’t play or compose anything like this in a million years, and I’m jealous.”

How ‘bout Them Guitars?

Nightwish isn’t a riff-oriented band. One of the main criticisms I’ve heard about the album centers on guitarist Emppu Vuorinen … I hear stuff like “generic modern metal riffs.” Here’s the thing: The guitars on Imaginaerum (and indeed on the two albums before it, Once and Dark Passion Play) are more for texture and percussion rather than for main melodies. This is true of many symphonic metal bands. And listen to the extraordinarily tight interplay between Vuorinen and drummer Jukka Nevalainan: There is no room for error, and these guys don’t make any errors. Tight, tight, tight. Yngwie Malmsteen-style scrambling isn’t what Nightwish needs.

In and Out of Genres

Imaginaerum is not just a metal album. Sure, “Ghost River” rocks as hard as a lot of stuff out there. But “Slow, Love, Slow” is a slow, jazzy number that will make longtime Nightwish scratch their heads in consternation … at first. They’ll come to love the awesome melody and note choice – and listening to Jukka gently stroke a snare with jazz brushes. “Turn Loose the Mermaids” sound like something Blackmore’s Night would write, with a Druidic vibe that’ll make you feel like visiting Stonehenge. Oh, and it has a section that sounds like a spaghetti Western. Somehow, it all works. Then there’s “Scaretale”, which sounds like a carnival ride gone wrong. It’s probably also the wildest, most enthusiastic, most intense performance OIzon’s ever concocted. The versatility and changes are unusual, even from a symphonic metal originator.

So, what about you? Any observations I missed? Questions about the band? Let’s hear it!

A photo from a far better night of rockin'.

A few weekends ago, I put in one of my most shambolic performances in quite awhile. It was just one of those nights.

But I must’ve sounded OK enough for the dad of a young thrash metal guitar-in-the-making’s dad to seek some advice from me: What sort of gear should he get a 15-year-old who wants to do a few coffeehouse gigs to get comfortable in front of audiences, but wants to eventually progress to get into a thrash-style band?

Something tells me my lineup of Superstrat-style guitars and big ol’ VHT head convinced him I was the right guy.

We talked for awhile and came to some good conclusions:

Guitar

The young dude has a taste for Ibanez RG Series guitars. Not a bad choice – proven, economical, reliable. I prefer the S Series, both for the sleek body style and the awesome Zero Resistance tremolo bridge. Floyd Rose should consider itself lucky that the ZR isn’t taking a big bite out of its sales. Anyway, finding a decent deal on one of the many levels of RG’s isn’t a bad deal.

I’d also recommend he check out the Jackson DK-1 and whatever LTD guitars catch his eye. He might also catch a nice Carvin Bolt+C on eBay.

Amp

This is always the tricky part. We bandied many ideas back and forth, and I think the best to come out was a Marshall Microstack. Worst case, it’s $325. It’s very portable and not ultra loud, which should be good for our budding thrasher’s early gigs. The Micro won’t keep up with him when he makes the jump to playing in a band. But at $325, he can turn that Micro into a great practice amp.

So what should his next amp be? The safe choice is a used Peavey 6505 and an Avatar 212 cabinet. The 6505 is good enough for plenty of touring musicians, so our buddy can grow with it. One caveat: hundred-watt tube heads get loud in a hurry, and tube amps need to push the output section a bit to get their best tone. Local venues really get annoyed if guitarists crank their heads too loud. Seriously, a 20-watt tube amp will get you by (I gigged for years with Hung Dynasty using a THD Univalve set for 8 watts – including unmic’d gigs). The only X factor is that I haven’t seen a low-wattage high-gain tube amp that fully convinces. That’s how I wound up with my 60-watt head … which I’m considering pairing with an attenuator to push the power section without going absurdly loud.

Some other random advice for our young thrasher:
-Resist the modeler temptation. You’ll disappear in the mix onstage, and you’ll barely have any definition in your playing. Modelers sounds great at low volume or on certain recordings (studio magic!), but they are buzzy and poorly defined onstage.
-Don’t crank the pre-amp gain. That’s a good way to make your tone get flabby, buzzy and blurry. And it invites the bad kind of feedback.
-Use your EQ wisely. I know it sounds cool in the bedroom to crank the bottom end and scoop the middle frequencies for an evil metal tone. But if you’re playing with a bassist or another guitar, you’ll get tonal oatmeal as you step all over each other’s frequencies. The guitars need to cover different parts of the sonic spectrum, and they need to avoid interfering with the bassist’s sonic territory.

Sigmund the Sea Monster rockin' a local venue. (Photo by Black Susan of Dorks in Space)

You see how I am? I neglect this blog for months, then I give you two posts in one day. I’ll try to find a happy medium.

Anyway, I got myself a fourth guitar. Liberace will shift over to Luminatus duty, and the new guitar will be a co-main guitar for Hung Dynasty.

The new guitar, by the way, is an absolutely awesome mid-90s ESP Mirage with a green swamp-ash body, a Duncan JB bridge pickup and an Original Floyd Rose. It deviates from my preference slightly by having a 12-inch fretboard radius rather than my usual 14-inch radius.

It produces a lot more bass frequencies than my beloved Carvin, but Todd and I still sound quite different from each other. I occasionally move to volume knob with my picking hand, unlike with the Carvin. And I’ll still have tense moments on big changes of real estate on the fretboard because of the very dark fretboard inlays.

But it’s very playable. Terrific neck and fretboard. And the pinch harmonics absolutely scream. Wonderful guitar! It gives the Carvin a very good run for its money. And the ESP is, to me, a beautiful instrument. Very metal, but still pretty classy. We call it Sigmund the Sea Monster, by the way.

The guitar is also a freakin’ tank. One local venue has guitar holders built into the wall of the stage. I had Sigmund hanging on the wall, and something went wrong with the guitar holder. Sigmund fell straight onto the top of my Fryette Deliverance head and then fretboard first on the stage floor. I was pretty panicked over this – but I picked it up, strummed a few notes and discovered that it wasn’t even out of tune and didn’t have a mark on it. The head was fine, too. Talk about passing a torture test!

Some bands will sound pretty much like you’re scanning the FM radio dial. You’ll hear whatever tunes fit their interest that get frequent regular airplay.

Me? I like it a bit different. I’ve got a good example: There’s this local Joan Jett tribute band called Bad Reputation. They did all the usual stuff, but also whipped out “Light of Day.” I’d completely forgotten about that song, and it was really cool to hear it again. I could see the movie poster with Joan and Michael J. Fox (looking quite uncomfortable as a male rocker skank) clearly in my mind.

Then Bad Reputation really surprised me: They played a Rage Against the Machine tune! And did a nice job of it.

That’s the way I like cover bands to operate: Dig up something I’ve forgotten. Surprise me with your spin on a well-known tune. And maybe even play something totally outside your genre.

Hung Dynasty isn’t a cover band. We love making original music in the vein of the bands we listened to growing up. But we also like to cover a few things here and there. We try to surprise, like our heavy metal mashup of “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers and Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.” Or playing “Down Under” by Men at Work likes it’s a Dio tune. Or digging really deep in the Iron Maiden catalog for “Wrathchild.”

So what about the rest of you? What do you like best from a cover or tribute band?

7. Arizona – I’m from Arizona, and I actually love this place despite its ludicrous politics and searing summer heat. So any tune about it by the band that inspired my music habit gets a spot.

6. Rhythm of Love – I’ve heard the Scorpions wound up not really liking the Savage Amusement album this appears on. Well, guys, if it makes you feel any better, listening to this disc was a huge influence on me. I still love it, and this song had a lot going for it. One of the more commercial tunes on the album, and I’m surprised it doesn’t get more radio airplay.

5. Bad Boys Running Wild – What a killer opening riff! It’s one of the darker tunes, and has a relatively menacing edge. Killer vocal phrasing from Klaus, and a very ballsy guitar tone.

4. Alien Nation – Again, I have to go to one of the band’s darker, heavier tunes. It’s also pretty modern and current, with a bit of de-tuning.

3. In Trance – An early one that features just a hint of reggae. There’s something about the live version of this on the Live Bites disc that’s far better than the studio original … the more modern production value and guitar tone wakes it right the hell up.

2. Still Loving You – It’s a fact that power ballads get the chicks. And few power ballads sound better than this. The chorus crashes into you like a Maori rugby player. Here’s another thing – this tune is damned hard to play correctly. So it’s technically sound, sounds magnificent and in its day had the power to get the girls all gooey. Das is gud!

INTERLUDE: Before we get to my most favoritist ever in history Scorpions tunes, I’m going to give you a few I never need to hear again.

3. Winds of Change – It’s not a bad song, but there’s more to the Scorps than peace and love ballads.

2. No One Like You – Fantastic guitar work, but overplayed to the point of pain.

1. The Zoo – An alright song, but too slow and plodding for my taste. The live version on World Wide Live, though, is considerably better than the studio version.

Okay, we’re onto my most favoritist ever Scorps tune of all time. And the winner is …

1. Is There Anybody There? – The studio version is great. But the Live Bites version is perfection. It makes me feel like I’m kicking it in a sweltering tropical place and listening to some beautifully cranked guitars. What could be better? Not a helluva lot. Thanks for this one, guys. I never get tired of it!

Here, give a listen to this clip from a live show back in 1993:

Magali Luyten of A Beautiful Sin.

I picked it up about a year ago, and I remember what I thought from the first spin … “Hey, this sounds cool. And more than just a little familiar!” The riffs and melody from “Lost,” the first track from A Beautiful Sin’s album The Unexpected, sent me scuttling to my stack of Helloween albums. Sure enough, I found exactly what I was looking for on the German speed metal band’s The Dark Ride album – a track called The Departed.

Same riffs. Same vocal melody. Same just about everything. And guess who wrote the tune for Helloween? If you guessed Uli, you are correct. He ripped himself off for the title track. I wonder how much this pisses Helloween off. Think I’m exaggerating? Take a listen and see for yourself:

The bottom line is this – Uli is not much of a composer. The keyboards sound flat-out goofy, and he could’ve taken them a better direction as the unquestioned band leader. I also have to blame him for overproducing the hell out of the vocals. The singer for A Beautiful Sin, Magali Luyten, is excellent. More Doro Pesch than Tarja Turunen, and I like it. In fact, if Andi Deris ever gets tired of being in Helloween, I’d vote her in as his replacement in a second. I’d love to hear her rock “Eagle Fly Free!”

I’m not actually sure A Beautiful Sin still exists. I can find more evidence of Magali working with a band called Virus IV.

You see, “the sky” can easily be mis-heard as “this guy.”

Classic example: Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” and it’s infamous line, “Excuse me while I kiss the sky” became “Excuse me while I kiss this guy.” This has amused people like, well, me, ever since.

Sweden’s Hammerfall took the lyrical landmine to a new high in their song, “Templars of Steel.” Granted, the song is already silly enough, glorifying, as it does, a bunch of admittedly badass Crusade-era knights who were still quite spartan in their living and weren’t exactly a bunch of ladies’ men, if you catch my drift. For them, it was a life of prayer, combat and just a bit more prayer thrown in for good measure. Partiers like Poison, these were not.

But Hammerfall made it worse with the line “Raise your fist in the sky.” Yes, heard through the wrong ears (namely mine), you have Joacim Cans possibly exhorting listeners to “raise your fist in this guy.”

Fortunately, Hammerfall are playing this over monstrous slabs of instrumentation and Cans’ very cool post-NWOBHM voice. Still, I giggle.

Don’t make me giggle at you – don’t use the words “the sky” in your lyrics.

Hung Dynasty follows.

“Engl Powerball miraculously fits my outrage, and shakes my great balls of frost!” – ABBATH / IMMORTAL

That has to be the greatest user testimonial I’ve ever seen, bar none. Still, I’m not sure if Abbath meant that the Powerball shakes the frost from his balls, or if his goolies are actually composed of frost.

I’ll bet Todd guffawed like a madman when he saw that. And I think “My Great Balls of Frost” will be my new catchphrase.

To be friends at Fryette Amplification: I will try very hard to come up with a testimonial for my Deliverance 60 that trumps Abbath’s praise for the Powerball.

Oh, and Abbath? Maybe you should put some shorts on if you want to keep praising Nordic deities today …