Album Review: Sharman's Harvest - Red Hands Black Deeds

Shaman’s Harvest. Mascot Label Group. 6 Aug 2017

Like so many things in the modern world, the concept of rock music has become fractured and splintered into many different parts, so much so that sometimes it’s difficult to identify the origins of something. I’m very pleased to note that this is not the case for Missouri hard rockers Shaman’s Harvest.

I’ve been listening to these guys for a few years now, and have always appreciated their dark take on rootsy rock. Their new long player, Red Hands Black Deeds is a more-than-worthy addition to the band’s catalogue, and has an instant feel of familiarity about it, while remaining fresh throughout.

Doing a bit of research, it turns out this was achieved by taking a fresh approach to recording for the new album, where the guys enlisted the services of a new producer keen to shake things up until everything was outside the box. The result is fantastic!

I was interested to learn that Shaman’s Harvest have been around a lot longer than the seven or eight years that I’ve known of them, having first started way back in the ’90s! Their desire to take a fresh approach to this new album is understandable, and there’s a definite energy here. For me, the biggest plus is their embrace of all things aurally vintage. Apparently, the band (and producer) wanted to utilise only analogue equipment on the album, and the result is a fantastic raw vintage sound that makes it feel like a well-worn leather jacket, which retains that new-car-smell!

Stylistically, there’s a lot in here. Classic mid-western rock is at the heart (Missouri, bordered by Kansas to the west and Illinois to the east is fairly central US, but according to American logic, it’s very much the heart of the farming mid-west), with a rootsy, almost country-esque vibe going on… think whiskey-soaked denim, trucks, and vast farmland; like a northern version of Creedence’s southern roots vibe, or a rootsier Queens Of The Stone Age.
On top of that, there’s a very dark, bluesy streak supplemented by plenty of distorted guitars and heavy grinding bass. The overall feel of the album is reminiscent of a rootsier Alice In Chains, with hard-edged grunge prowess to match.

The mood does lighten on a few tunes, like the rollicking Off The Tracks, mellow Long Way Home, or gentle A Longer View, with plenty of balls-out rock on tunes like bluesy Soul Crusher, thumping So Long, and driving first single The Come Up. Be sure to wait for the “secret” track right at the end too; Hookers And Blow… I need say no more!

Shaman’s Harvest has done a great job with this one. Check it out now!

Luke Balzan

Red Hands Black Deeds is the sixth studio album by the American rock band Shaman's Harvest. It was released on July 28, 2017.
Sharman's Harvest is Nathan Hunt on lead vocals, Josh Hamler on rhythm guitar, Matt Fisher on bass, Derrick Shipp on lead guitar, and Adam Zemanek on drums.

Track Listing
1. Red Hands and Black Deeds (Prelude)
2. Broken Ones
3. The Come Up
4. A Longer View
5. Soul Crusher
6. Off the Tracks
7. Long Way Home
8. The Devil in Our Wake
9. Blood Trophies
10. So Long
11. Tusk and Bone
12. Scavengers

Master Series 5: Dedication

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 8 Jul 2017

Dedication is the fifth in the ASO’s Master Series for 2017, and it showcases Ravel, Saint-Saëns and Mendelssohn. If an exit poll was held, I am certain the audience would have voted overwhelmingly for Louis Lortie’s performance of Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No.2 as the hands-down favorite of the evening.

French-Canadian Louis Lortie was at the height of his lyrical powers in this performance of the ever popular melodic piano concerto. The piano takes centre stage from the outset in this melodic work and all attention is rightly on the pianist. Fittingly, guest conductor Christoph König’s style is restrained so as to support the soloist and not allow the orchestra to dominate. Lortie’s execution of the dynamics of the bridging sections in the first movement is superb, and the exchanges between him and König at the humorous end of the second are a joy to behold. The whole performance has a lightness and freshness about it and neither Lortie nor König read more into the score than was there. At the end the audience erupts into generous applause.

So, to the bookends of the programme, which are overshadowed by the concerto.

Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin was written by Ravel as a memorial to friends who died in World War I. It is light and reflective and was originally a piece for solo piano, but has been arranged in various guises for full orchestra and smaller ensembles. In my humble opinion it works better in its original form, and the orchestrated version isn’t so satisfying or ‘masterful’ that the ASO should repeat it so soon after its last performance, which was barely ten months ago! As is often the case, the ASO’s woodwinds are sublime and oboist Celia Craig deserves to be singled out when the orchestra takes its bows. As in the Saint-Saëns, König gave the piece a light touch and doesn’t brood over the minor keys in which it is mostly written.

The ASO last performed Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 - the so-called Scottish Symphony - a little over four years ago. All four movements are played one after the other with almost no break between them. They all feature march rhythms and fanfares and there is an overall underlying intrepid moodiness until the almost joyous flourish of horns at the very end. Adrian Uren and co. are terrific! König lays bare the melodic palette of the symphony and allows the underlying sweetness of the motivic material to have its way. This is assisted by his placement of the double basses and French horns not in groups but in single sweeping ranks: the basses on his right, and the horns across the rear.

An enjoyable but uninspiring concert.

Kym Clayton

Ps: Dear ASO. Please don’t reschedule the Ravel or the Mendelssohn for some years. There is so much other music that you haven’t played yet.

When: 8 Jul 2017

Where: Adelaide Town Hall

Bookings: Closed

Album Review: Ayreon – The Source

Ayreon. Mascot Label & Music Theories. 20 Jun 2017

Progressive music occupies a special place in the music world, often defying specific categorisation and way too far left field for the usual routes of access. It can often fall into the category of musician’s music, and as a drummer myself, I have a great appreciation for this aspect of progressive music, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Something I find quite interesting is the journey of discovery for progressive acts. For normal, more mainstream bands, discovering new sounds is usually straightforward: listening to radio, specific genre shows, internet searches, YouTube and Spotify play lists, bands’ influences, and the like. For progressive music though, despite being a big fan, I almost always come across things based on others’ recommendations, like it’s a special subset that can only be discovered by word-of-mouth. So here’s my bit of word-of-mouth to you about Dutch act Ayreon…

I’ve brushed with Ayreon in the past, due to founding and fundamental member Arjen Lucassen’s associations with Dream Theatre and Symphony X, but hadn’t really heard too much specifically. Enter The Source, the ninth album from Ayreon, and suddenly my world exploded!

Like much of progressive music, Ayreon hangs around the heavier end of the spectrum, but there’s certainly a lot more to this than mere heavy metal. To an extent, there’s more here than just ‘normal’ progressive too, as the two-disc album is a proper journey, with four distinct movements telling a story in a sci-fi fantasy world. If you’re also new to Ayreon, you’re greeted with some familiarity on The Source, with the first ‘chronicle’ of three tracks opening with the vocal acrobatics of Dream Theatre’s, James La Brie, and is shortly joined by the likes of Kamelot’s, Tommy Karevik and Symphony X’s, Russell Allen, as well as a host of other vocalists playing a variety of characters throughout. There are soaring guitars and keyboards, grinding riffs, and melodic metal interludes that harken to something whimsical, classical and even folkloric.

By the second chronicle, the mood completely changes into much more melodic, almost mediaeval folkloric sounds, pairing gentle organs and wild guitars. The scene fades to something straddling glam and metal for the third chronicle, which also features some interesting flute and operatic interludes, before reaching the final chronicle that quickly journeys everywhere we’ve already been, with bluesy metal, folksy melodies, glam rock chords and harmonies, and dark grooves.

Like most progressive albums, there’s a hell of a lot going on here, and it’s difficult to take it all in on a single listen, or in a single music review for that matter! This is something that reveals itself over many listens, and hearing it in different forms and locations. I started by driving with the album, then progressed to my main home stereo, and finished with headphones, each time getting a totally different experience. The mix of different vocalists adds a really interesting dimension to things, and there’s quite a few guest musicians on here too, including The Aristocrat’s brilliant axeman Guthrie Govan, with each guest artist lending a piece of themselves to the whole. This is definitely a work of art that will impress not only fans of progressive metal, but discerning fans of just about every other musical style too!

Luke Balzan

Ayreon is musician Arjen Anthony Lucassen.

The Source features several guest singers including James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Simone Simons (Epica), Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian), Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia), Tommy Karevik (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder), and Russell Allen (Symphony X), and Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried and Me).

 
Track Listing:
CD 1
Chronicle 1: The Frame
1. The Day That the World Breaks Down
2. Sea of Machines
3. Everybody Dies

Chronicle 2: The Aligning of the Ten
4. Star of Sirrah
5. All That Was
6. Run! Apocalypse! Run!
7. Condemned to Live

CD 2
Chronicle 3: The Transmigration
1. Aquatic Race
2. The Dream Dissolves
3. Deathcry of a Race
4. Into the Ocean

Chronicle 4: The Rebirth
5. Bay of Dreams
6. Planet Y Is Alive!
7. The Source Will Flow
8. Journey to Forever
9. The Human Compulsion
10. March of the Machines

Album Review: Raised By Eagles – I Must Be Somewhere

Raised by Eagles. ABC/Universal. 20 Jun 2017

I have to admit, I’d not really heard of Melbourne band Raised By Eagles until this album came across my desk. Admittedly, I tend to have pretty eclectic musical tastes, varying from metal to grunge to world music to jazz and blues, but once I’d given these guys a couple of listens, it was clear that they were deserving of my attention despite being a departure from my usual musical pursuits.

The band has won many accolades and has a couple of successful albums under their belts already, with their latest offering, I Must Be Somewhere, their first on a major label. It is sure to take them to new heights.

Often described as an ‘Americana’ band - which is really just a fancy way of saying they’re a folk band (what’s wrong with that label anyway?) - after giving I Must Be Somewhere a listen, it’s clear that there’s a lot more to these guys than just being a folk band. There’s certainly some strong Americana influences here, with clean vocal melodies, smooth guitar driving things along, and an acoustic, but there’s more depth here too, with a bit of blues, elements of country, and even melodic rock. There are times I’m reminded of a modern reincarnation of Things Of Stone and Wood, or a simpler take on Dave Matthews, and even a little bit of Creedence too.

It’s all very easy on the ears, and has loads of appeal regardless of a listener’s musical prejudices. I guess that’s a testament to the talent of these guys, being able to create a sense of appeal regardless of where you’re coming from. That puts I Must Be Somewhere in a very special place indeed!

Luke Balzan

Raised By Eagles is Luke Sinclair, Nick O’Mara, Luke Richardson, and Johnny Gibson.
 
Track Listing:
1. Shape & Line
2. Every Night
3. I Must Be Somewhere
4. Nowhere (You Wanna Run)
5. Heartbreaker
6. Night Wheels
7. Every Day, Every Day
8. Dreamer
9. Gold Rush Blues
10. By Now