New videos and interviews
Feb. 7th, 2008 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidnThat's enough attempting politics - back to music again. Both Helloween and Gamma Ray have released new albums and the videos that come with them fairly recently (it was towards the end of last year, actually, but like I've said before America gets to know about these things much later than everybody else and I am failing catastrophically at keeping up).
To sum up, the video for As Long as I Fall by Helloween is utterly ridiculous. Not surprising from the band who brought you Limozeen in Space, but this actually looks a bit more like a Rhapsody video with a slightly higher budget in places. The band views are all right, very Metallica-like in that they're standing on a rock pillar that slowly crumbles away like a game of Kurushi even though it's surprisingly intact by the end of it. Instead, it's the daft Mortal Kombat-style adventure in between them that's the worst bit - what does any of it mean? I've no idea what the fat little devil is, either. I love the brief air-piano shot near the end, though. As for the song, it sounds slightly like Helloween are trying to become a pop group again, but with rather more success than what happened the last time Michael Kiske convinced them to go in that direction.
Similarly, the opener from Land of the Free II, unusual in being a direct sequel to an album that was released over ten years ago, is happy and enjoyable, and much more positive than anything Gamma Ray had to offer on Majestic - so it sounds like they've done what they intended and made a return to their old style between the times they were a political band and a sci-fi band. As for the video, well, on the one hand it's good that they now have a producer who has upgraded from using Windows Movie Maker and MS Paint, but on the other, I have to admit that this one's in very bad taste. I understand the point they're trying to make - freedom and liberty and the end of oppression and America and everything else they're usually on about - but the whole thing looks just a bit too bloody and Clockwork Orange for me to comfortably watch it.
The only real disadvantage with the band, I find, is that as much as he's respected as the driving force behind just about the entirety of the power metal universe, Kai Hansen does have a nasty habit of stealing other people's songs.
Also of interest are the two interviews with the bands that SPV did - Kai of Gamma Ray and Weiki and Andi from Helloween are interviewed by a loud prat with an American accent and all the charm, wit and subtlety of Timmy Mallett, and they appear comparably bemused by him throughout. Frankly I didn't expect Andi to have as deep a voice as he does in the video, and for the most part they're both rather understated, although there's quite an interesting explanation of where the idea of the song came from.
Quite apart from the hat he's taken to wearing that makes him look worryingly hip-hop, one of the most surprising things in Kai Hansen's interview is how he says that he's been listening to a lot of Dragonforce recently and is impressed by where they've got to. I also think it's impressive that a power metal band has got so much recognition, particularly in America, but why did it have to be them?
In fact, if I can finish on this unrelated side note, I've finally worked out what I don't like about them. It seems that most of the bands I listen to enjoy power metal because, well, it's a bit of a laugh. Dragonforce seem to be going for the younger System of a Down-type audience and teaching them that it's instead about being 3xtr3m3 with 4tt1tud3, and I'd like them a lot more if they stopped with the image of being the fastest band aliii-eee-ive and just enjoyed themselves more. Or took themselves less seriously, or something like that. I don't know.
To sum up, the video for As Long as I Fall by Helloween is utterly ridiculous. Not surprising from the band who brought you Limozeen in Space, but this actually looks a bit more like a Rhapsody video with a slightly higher budget in places. The band views are all right, very Metallica-like in that they're standing on a rock pillar that slowly crumbles away like a game of Kurushi even though it's surprisingly intact by the end of it. Instead, it's the daft Mortal Kombat-style adventure in between them that's the worst bit - what does any of it mean? I've no idea what the fat little devil is, either. I love the brief air-piano shot near the end, though. As for the song, it sounds slightly like Helloween are trying to become a pop group again, but with rather more success than what happened the last time Michael Kiske convinced them to go in that direction.
Similarly, the opener from Land of the Free II, unusual in being a direct sequel to an album that was released over ten years ago, is happy and enjoyable, and much more positive than anything Gamma Ray had to offer on Majestic - so it sounds like they've done what they intended and made a return to their old style between the times they were a political band and a sci-fi band. As for the video, well, on the one hand it's good that they now have a producer who has upgraded from using Windows Movie Maker and MS Paint, but on the other, I have to admit that this one's in very bad taste. I understand the point they're trying to make - freedom and liberty and the end of oppression and America and everything else they're usually on about - but the whole thing looks just a bit too bloody and Clockwork Orange for me to comfortably watch it.
The only real disadvantage with the band, I find, is that as much as he's respected as the driving force behind just about the entirety of the power metal universe, Kai Hansen does have a nasty habit of stealing other people's songs.
Also of interest are the two interviews with the bands that SPV did - Kai of Gamma Ray and Weiki and Andi from Helloween are interviewed by a loud prat with an American accent and all the charm, wit and subtlety of Timmy Mallett, and they appear comparably bemused by him throughout. Frankly I didn't expect Andi to have as deep a voice as he does in the video, and for the most part they're both rather understated, although there's quite an interesting explanation of where the idea of the song came from.
Quite apart from the hat he's taken to wearing that makes him look worryingly hip-hop, one of the most surprising things in Kai Hansen's interview is how he says that he's been listening to a lot of Dragonforce recently and is impressed by where they've got to. I also think it's impressive that a power metal band has got so much recognition, particularly in America, but why did it have to be them?
In fact, if I can finish on this unrelated side note, I've finally worked out what I don't like about them. It seems that most of the bands I listen to enjoy power metal because, well, it's a bit of a laugh. Dragonforce seem to be going for the younger System of a Down-type audience and teaching them that it's instead about being 3xtr3m3 with 4tt1tud3, and I'd like them a lot more if they stopped with the image of being the fastest band aliii-eee-ive and just enjoyed themselves more. Or took themselves less seriously, or something like that. I don't know.
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Date: 2008-02-08 11:50 pm (UTC)It sounds suspiciously like the Buffy opening theme to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ux3uCKvBuo