FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
Day three of this year’s 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise started off at Grand Turk with fun in the sun and continued into the late hours, with live sets from Metal Church, Helloween, Nile, Immolation, Doro and many, many more
Live review by Adrien Begrand; Live photos by Marc Hansen, Michael Jagla, Ag Babin, and Adrien Begrand.
After attending Barge to Hell in December, I had absolutely no idea that I’d be returning to Miami some five weeks later to the same port, the same ship, the same crew even, to cover the third annual 70,000 Tons of Metal. But as anyone will tell you, when you have a chance to go on the craziest cruise around, let alone one of the very best metal festivals in the world, you don’t pass it up.
Live review by Adrien Begrand; Live photos by Marc Hansen, Michael Jagla, and Ag Babin.
To start, some context: it’s rare when an album from within the amorphous power/gothic/symphonic/what-have-you metal category manages to keep my attention these days. I…
It might be considered blasphemy from a metal perspective, but from a purely pop-oriented point of view, where Within Temptation is concerned, “heavy” doesn’t necessarily equate “better”. They’ve always been a pop act at heart; whenever they’ve dragged out the heavy riffs or the goth clichés in the past, it’s felt a bit on the forced side. When they’re in full pop rock mode, though, they’re in their element, and The Unforgiving plays to those strengths, at times exceptionally well.
Back by popular demand, here are the Staff Playlists for March 2011!
For goth metal fans, at least you can buy the aforementioned highlights on iTunes. As far as splurging for the complete album, you’re better off waiting for the new Within Temptation album.
As for the bulk of the original album, it’s what you would expect from a former member of Within Temptation (Westerholt): soaring vocals, bombastic guitar solos, pounding drums, lush keyboard and symphonic string arrangements. All played with subtlety and an attention to contrast that it seems only those in power or progressive metal remember any more