Anyway, here are some more tunes from upcoming albums!
"Saturday Night Gave Me Sunday Morning" - Bon Jovi (listen here)
From the album Burning Bridges (21/8/15)
From my understanding, this album is supposed to be a collection of unfinished ideas the band had between tours that have been fleshed out to act as a stepping stone between What About Now from 2013 and another studio album coming out next year. As for my opinion about Bon Jovi, I think Dean Winchester put it best in an episode of Supernatural; "Bon Jovi rocks...on occasion". Sadly, this track is not one of those occasions.
It's alright if you're into the medium-paced Rock songs that you can jump around to at gigs but it's no "Wanted Dead Or Alive" or "Let It Rock". Bon Jovi fans will probably like it as Mr Jovi certainly hasn't lost the use of his pipes but it's not to my taste. However, one of the other tracks from the upcoming album ("We Don't Run") has more of a punch to it & sounds like a better version of "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark" - Fall Out Boy. If you're after music with more aggression & a passionate sound, definitely check that one out.
"Cirice" - Ghost (listen here)
From the album Meliora (21/8/15)
Is it Ghost or Ghost B.C.? Either way, this track grew on me after a few listens. I started off thinking it was alright & found myself internally humming it a few days later, which is usually a sign that I should buy a song if I'm enjoying the experience of having an earworm. I'm not familiar with the band's previous work but if it's as strong as this, I'm definitely going to check it out. My only real criticism is that the intro goes on a bit long but I'm probably only saying that because I fucking love the chorus and want to hear it immediately.
Everything comes together perfectly in this song, from the haunting piano during the intro to the gradual build-up of guitar riffs and solos. I'm probably going to out myself as a Metal pleb by comparing some of the verse riffing to slower Metallica tunes like "Harvester Of Sorrow" & "Sad But True" but hopefully I'll redeem myself by saying "Cirice" blows those tracks out of the water. Not just that but at no point does this song feel pretentious or uber-serious like some of the more operatic Prog-Metal tunes of the last decade.
"Arrow Of Time" - Queensryche (listen here)
From the album Condition Human (2/10/15)
I know, I know, I'm missing two umlauts, let's just look past it.
I get the impression that Queensryche are overlooked when it comes to great 80's Metal, as compilation albums often choose "Silent Lucidity" instead of tracks like "Queen Of The Reich". Hopefully, this album will encourage people to dive into older material and maybe even a few of the deep cuts from Operation: Mindcrime if this track is anything to go by. "Arrow Of Time" sounds great if you're into mid-80's Iron Maiden with Todd La Torre taking up the mantle for a second time after Geoff Tate was given his P45 from the band.
Purists will no doubt find fault in Todd La Torre's vocals & bawl about how it's not Queensryche without Geoff Tate, effectively pissing all over the efforts of the rest of the band, but I think he sounds great. He's definitely been inspired by Tate's work with the band but it doesn't sound like he's trying to be Tate. If anything, it sounds like he's trying to be Bruce Dickinson but I won't hold that against him. I'm not as excited for this album as I am for High Country but I'll still check it out & go in with decent expectations.
"HardRockLover" - Prince (listen here)
From the album HitNRun (??/??/??)
Dear God, this is fucking shit. We've got everything from vocoder to screaming in this turd of a song and further proves Prince's career has gone on far too long. Remember a few years ago when he proclaimed the Internet was "over", shortly before releasing his new album via newspapers? Now he's releasing this album via hip new streaming service Tidal having removed all his previous material from Spotify. I'll be honest, I'm genuinely struggling to grasp whether Prince is the world's greatest troll or just a fucking idiot.
This track feels like someone trying to make fun of Rock and Pop with something that sounds like bad video game music. It sounds like a good song that's been rigorously fucked by someone who believes they're an artist, assisted by a band that are probably more lucky than talented. If he's a troll & he's deliberately releasing crap material under the guise of "art" to ridicule the elitist music journalists (who will no doubt love this), he's doing a great job. If he's actually trying and this is the final result, he should've just stopped after "Let's Go Crazy".
"Speed Of Light" - Iron Maiden (listen here)
From the album The Book Of Souls (4/9/15)
Once I learned that the 16th offering from my favourite band would be a double album containing an 18-minute orchestral epic, I was a little worried. I reckon I'm in the minority when I say I prefer Iron Maiden's shorter, less progressive songs but that's not to say I dislike the nine minute epics; I just tend to prefer tracks like "The Number Of The Beast" to "Paschendale". However, this track has since blown all my concerns away and now I'm hyped for September 4th to roll in (after August 21st, that is).
As hard as it may be, let's ignore the fantastic video for now as it's the only music video I've linked to in these Taster posts. The song is brilliant & sounds like it could've been written for any one of the earlier Maiden albums. At first, I thought Bruce's vocals sounded a little off (which I can hardly fault them for as this was recorded before his cancer diagnosis) but after a few more listens, it slowly started to improve. Either way, I love this track and it's made me super excited for the album. Job well done, lads!
Once again, a decent mix of tracks I loved and tracks I couldn't stand. If I had to order the ten tracks I've listened to across both Taster posts in my favourite order (1 being best, 10 being worst), it'd go:
1. "Speed Of Light" - Iron Maiden
2. "High Country" - The Sword
3. "Cirice" - Ghost
4. "Coming For You" - The Offspring
5. "Arrow Of Time" - Queensryche
6. "The Vengeful One" - Disturbed
7. "Thunder & Lightning" - Motorhead
8. "Complexity" - Eagles Of Death Metal
9. "Saturday Night Gave Me Sunday Morning" - Bon Jovi
10. "HardRockLover" - Prince
Do you agree? Let me know your order in the comments OR if there are any upcoming albums with great singles out at the moment, although I can't guarantee there'll be a Taster Session #3 written any time soon.
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