Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways Review

Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways [Rock]

The cover art to "Sonic Highways" (seen above) is laden with information about the album's background. The distinctive '8' figure in the middle represents two things: firstly, that "Sonic Highways" is Foo Fighters' eighth studio album and secondly, that each of the eight individual tracks was recorded in a different city. The city-scape seen here is an amalgamation of the eight cities in which the band did recording work for the album.

Frontman Dave Grohl explained this move as being aimed at allowing the band to draw inspiration and creative input from each of the different cities. According to him, the idea was for each track to contain features of each city's 'style' while simultaneously retaining the classic, guitar-heavy Foo Fighters sound that fans and critics alike have grown familiar with. The presence of guest artists on every single track appears to accord with this idea.

A track-by-track analysis will reveal if the band succeeded in its aim:

1. Something From Nothing (Chicago, Illinois): The album opens on a sour note. The first few lines set the tone for what turns out to be an extremely bland grunge number. I'm not sure what element of Chicago the band was trying to channel here - if anything, the band might as well have recorded this track in the UK, given that the main riff to this song is an unapologetic rip-off of the one in 'Holy Diver' by Dio.

2. The Feast And The Famine (Arlington, Virginia): This piece is more typical of the 'classic' Foo Fighters sound; it starts off with a lightly overdriven guitar hook, bursts into a rather louder verse section and is punctuated by Grohl's trademark raspy chorus-ending yells. However, it lacks the punch that made many of the band's earlier singles memorable.

3. Congregation (Nashville, Tennessee): This is the first track which immediately gives away what sound the band was trying for (if not the exact city in which the band recorded). The song opens nicely, with a country-rock feel, but falls flat around halfway through. All momentum is lost in the brief and totally random musical interlude in the middle, and Grohl's subsequent screams of "No false hope!" do more to provide irony than to save the song.

4. What Did I Do, God As My Witness (Austin, Texas): More country-rock here - it is clear from the first few tracks that this is the most comfortable 'new' territory for the band. Further, unlike 'Congregation', the softer ballad section in the middle complements the rollicking opening fairly nicely. The song is probably about 1 1/2 minutes longer than it needs to be, though - the ending bit adds nothing to the song at all.

5. Outside (Los Angeles, Calfornia): Replace the guitar hook in 'The Feast And The Famine' with a bass intro, change the key and take away Grohl's screams and you get 'Outside'. This is another track in which the opening makes the listener anticipate an all-time great Foo Fighters number and the chorus kills any such anticipation with certainty and finality.

6. In The Clear (New Orleans, Louisiana): New Orleans is considered as one of the cities responsible for the early development of jazz. The track notes list The Preservation Hall Jazz Band as guest artists on this piece. Unfortunately, this piece turns out merely average and has no hint of jazz in it. Worse still, the sounds of the Jazz Band's wind instruments are shunted to the back end of the mix. This track is not bad in and of itself, but disappoints considering the range of possibilities that having a jazz band around could have brought about.

7. Subterranean (Seattle, Washington): This drab, ho-hum number is comfortably the worst track on the album. Ben Gibbard's backing vocals add nothing to the track.

8. I Am A River (New York, New York): The album concludes with its longest track, a draggy piece with lyrics clearly inspired by the Taylor Swift manual of lyricism ("I ... I ... I am a river" - really now?). Grohl's voice is in fine form on this track, but it is wasted on thoughtless lyrics and an overall extremely flat and lifeless musical setting which is not helped one bit by the presence of a string ensemble.

Overall, the album comes across as more like a collection of hastily-assembled ideas rather than a coherent whole; how so many of the songs start well and then careen into uninspired endings is evidence of this. There is an eclectic mix of guest artists, but their individual and collective impact on this album is negligible - one wonders whether the band roped them in just because it could or the guest artists bugged the band into giving them featured credits.

This has to count as one of the band's blandest and most disappointing releases. 

Rating: 1.5/5

Ne Obliviscaris - Citadel Review

Ne Obliviscaris - Citadel [Progressive Metal]

As an album, I can't say I enjoyed this more than their debut. Blastbeats and clean sections come marching in with no endpoint, and it's clear that the only direction this band has is in its non-metal movements. The metal sections are too generic for me. Vocals are far too monotonous. You will be forgiven if you haven't heard this band because they are relatively young. Their debut 'Portal Of I' was only released in 2012, but it's novelty of implementing a violinist into semi-Opeth soundscapes seemed to please many metalheads around the world. I enjoyed some of the songs there, though not initially. Till today, a fair portion of the album seems too self-indulgent. The violin, while providing some beautiful moments, never struck me as a 'metal' instrument. What I mean was that it seemed superimposed onto the progressive metal sound, and played mostly like a guest instrument rather than part of the song-writing process. An example of what I consider a great addition to the metal sound is Jørgen Munkeby's saxophone on Ihsahn's album 'After', which I implore you to listen to if you haven't already.

So does this album deliver? Song-by-song... which is tricky since the whole album is mostly three very long songs split up into 6 tracks:

1. Painters Of The Tempest (Part I)- Wyrmholes: Piano and violin. A well-written introduction. 
2. Painters Of The Tempest (Part II)- Triptych Lux: Two minutes of death metal suddenly interrupted by a jazz section with classical guitars and violins; it's jarring but not shocking to those who have already heard their debut. I wish, however, that the death metal moments of the song were written with more variety. It seems to be the same pattern of blastbeats and generic screams. This one song alone is further broken down to three very distinct parts, and surprisingly, they flow well. The abrupt changes are mostly within the individual parts. My favourite section has to be the last one, entitled 'Curator'. It's clearly marked out with hazy guitars and a pulsating bassline. The violin melody is actually well written in this one, which is more than I can say for half the songs on the debut. 
3. Painters Of The Tempest (Part III)- Reveries From The Stained Glass Womb: A flamenco instrumental. Again, the clean sections of the album are the only outstanding one's so far. While a great display of musical knowledge and prowess, it's mood is very different from the first two parts of the song. Not a fan of the inconsistency. 
4. Pyrrhic: Second full song on the album. This was a pretty good song throughout. Great riffs, an obvious motif with the violin and the rhythm section does a great job here. The violin is well-integrated, though not necessarily in a 'metal' way. Song has a sudden ambient moment, which doesn't feel forced, and in fact goes on to the violin-led end of the song, one of the stronger moments on this album. 
5. Devour Me, Colossus (Part I)- Blackholes: By this time the album verges on fatigue. Unlike bands like Opeth, who write structurally coherent songs without losing progression, this band seems to be more monotonous. Nothing seems to stand out in this song. 
6. Devour Me, Colossus (Part II)- Contortions: instrumental with the same piano notes from the first song. Well, it's still a pretty nice melody.

Also, the production is terrible. The mix does nothing to make the guitars sound heavy (possibly why the metal sections sound terrible), the drums are overproduced and have a thin sound. The violin is clear, but perhaps too clear; it's too jarring and steals all the limelight when it comes into place. Only the bass is done well. The DR8 is deceptive, seeing that the album has many instrumental/atmospheric moments that would skew the dynamic range towards the higher numbers.

The instrumentals are great, and 'Pyrrhic' is a good song, but the two other songs, 'Contortions' in particular, have far too little in them to justify their lengths.

★★★☆☆