EleKtriK

Time for some Prog rock. For those not as adventurous as others you may wanna glance over this post. King Crimson are among the forefathers of Prog Rock, up there with the likes of Genesis, Yes, and Rush. The band has been bringing their unique take on Prog since the late 60's. Granted there's been some breaks and hiatuses and reunions, but the band still somehow comes back with something great each time. I featured the bands landmark record, "In The Court Of The Crimson King' many moons again. That still remains one of my favorite Prog rock albums ever. For a band that has an illustrious career there are plenty of Live records to choose from. So much so the band has released a ton of Live records under their "Collectors Club" and "Collectable King Crimson" line. Needless to say I've got my pick of Live albums to feature. But I wanted to go with something a little more modern and offbeat. So we feature the 2003 release 'EleKtriK: Live In Japan'

2003 marked a decent year for the band. Having released a new record in 'The Power To Believe', the band decided to tour in support of the release. 'EleKtrik' was recorded at Kouseinenkin Kaikan in Tokyo Japan on April 16, 2003. The album is pretty much latter period music from the band. The CD can also been seen as the audio counterpart to their DVD 'Eyes Wide Open', which features most of the audio from that show. Musically like I mentioned it's latter era Crimson material, with some stand out tracks like "Happy With What You Have to be Happy With", "ProzaKc Blues" and "The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum". This would pretty much be the end of the band before going on their third hiatus. I feel like this era of the band doesn't get a whole lot of recognition. I mean the classic era of the band is amazing, but the latter period stuff has some real technical and great stuff in there. If you're feeling weird and ya need some music to back it up, enjoy this Live gem.

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Live Consternation

Festival season is a glorious time of year if you're in Europe. Tons of festivals with tons of great bands. America could stand to learn something. So for this post we're going to Germany and the Summer Breeze Open Air Festival and feature some Katatonia.

Of course I've featured some Katatonia on the blog before, but for a band with a well established career, the band to date only has two Live albums. We'll focus on the first here. 'Live Consternation' was taken from the bands performance at Summer Breeze in '06. It wasn't released until '07 as part of a Live CD/DVD package. The DVD portion captures the same show for your visual pleasure. This is a pretty simple Live record. Clocks in at just over 52 minutes and features 11 tracks. The album tends to focus on the bands more recent works in 'The Great Cold Distance' and 'Viva Emptiness'. So for fans of their earlier stuff, sorry. That being said, the setlist is still solid Katatonia. The band is amazing Live and while they tend to not tour stateside all that often, definitely see them Live if you get the chance.

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Unleashed In The East

What would this blog be without another classic Live album tossed in the mix? Don't answer that. Time to go back to Japan for some Live Judas Priest. 'Unleashed In The East' was Priest's first Live record. Released in '79 and recorded in Japan on February 10th and 15th 1979, this is Priest on the cusp of greatness. Released just a year before the classic 'British Steel' album, this is Priest in top form, like there's any other. Since the original issue, there's been many versions of this record floating around. US got a nine track release, while Japan got a 13 track release. And somehow the UK got a bonus 7' vinyl with it. CBS for ya folks. In any case you get the remastered US release which features the bonus tracks, "Rock Forever", "Delivering The Goods", "Hell Bent For Leather" and "Starbreaker". Priest would of course go on to release a few more Live albums, even a couple with Ripper Owens when he was handling vocals. However 'Unleashed In The East' remains the best of the Live material.

I got to see Priest a few years back now with Thin Lizzy and Black Label Society opening for them. And I gotta say for a back whose roots go back to the late 60's, the band can still bring it. Halford still has a pretty good range and hell can even take a few songs off and let the crowd sing, as was the case with "Breaking The Law". While the band is still active, they've scaled the touring back a bit, but they're still worth catching Live if you can.

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The Tokyo Showdown

Let's go back to Japan for some Live records this week. First up is some more of that Swedish Metal goodness. In Flames along with other Swedes At The Gates and Dark Tranquillity helped pioneer what would become to be known as the Gothenburg Sound in the early and mid '90's. In fact In Flames and Dark Tranquillity swapped vocalists in the early days. Formed in '90, In Flames has consistently been a figure in the Metal scene and now is more featured in the mainstream Rock/Alternative scene, evolving their sound from their classic sound to a more modern refined Rock approach that has left many longtime fans alienated.

For a band that's been around nearly 25 years now, the band has only one official Live release. That release is the '01 effort 'The Tokyo Showdown'. Recorded over the Japanese tour in November of 2000, this album captures what is pretty much the last of the classic sound before the evolution began. Fifteen tracks that cover their albums, 'Clayman', 'Colony', 'Whoracle' and 'The Jester Race'. Clocking in a just about an hour long, this gives the listener a rare glimpse into an In Flames Live show. The audio for me on this is a bit sub par and really could've been better. After all this is a Live record.

Of course in recent years In Flames has become a pale comparison of what they used to be. Their latest effort, 'Siren Charms' is for me just a staple of all the bland modern Rock that mainstream radio currently plays. Sadly the band doesn't seem to keen on revisiting the early days and sound of the band anytime soon. I've gotten the chance to see In Flames twice now. Once opening for Slayer in support of their 'ReRoute To Remain' album and then again in '08 as part of the Gigantour tour. Both times the band has been solid Live. Loads of energy on stage and cranking through sets and taking names. A lot of people, including myself, would love for a return to the old sound, but I don't see that happening. This however is a good reminder of what the band used to be like.

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Live (Hot Curry & Wine)

Haven't has any good ol NWOBHM up here in a while, so lets change that with some Holocaust. I has featured Holocaust a while back with their debut album 'The Nightcomers' and remembered they put out two pretty killer Live records. So decided to feature the more well known one in 'Live (Hot Curry & Wine).' The album actually is the second Live album in a row following the bands debut album. Touring in the early days was critical if you wanted to stand out from the other NWOBHM bands, and well Holocaust did. This version of the album is the reissue from Metal Blade that features two bonus tracks in "Lovin' Feelin' Danger" and "Death Or Glory".

The band of course is most known for having Metallica cover their song "The Small Hours". But they also got covered by Gamma Ray and Six Feet Under. The band is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the NWOBHM movement. Despite the praise the band released one more album in '84 before dropping off the grid til the early '90's where their sound evolved into more of a Progressive, Post Rock sound. The old sound did come back some with the '03 release of 'Primal'. Despite another decade long hiatus the band has returned again and are working on a new record.

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Woodstock

Sometimes an artist can turn a Live recording into something that captures a generation. A snapshot of that point in time if you will. Jimi Hendrix did that on two occasions with his God like playing. Monterey Pop Festival, in which we are introduced to the Hippie Generation and where we have the iconic image of him destroying his Fender and lighting it on fire. The other being Hendrix playing The Star Spangled Banner to the masses at Woodstock. Practically everyone and their mother recognizes the image of Hendrix at Woodstock or the tune. In fact that image is currently in an eBay commercial. Proof that singular performance is still relevant today.

'Woodstock' was released in '94. Probably in a sly way to tie in the twenty-five years since Woodstock happened. Actually it was released two days after the actual twenty five year mark. Hendrix of course played the final day of Woodstock. Most people familiar with him were expecting to see him preform with The Experience, his backing back consisting of Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding. Instead they got his new band, Gypsy Sun and Rainbows. In fact the only time real time anyone ever saw this lineup was at Woodstock. The band would be revamped and shorted down to A Band Of Gypsy's for the next album.

The album captures a chunk of Hendrix's performance at Woodstock. August 18, 1969, marked the end of of the three day festival. Hendrix was initially to hit the stage at Midnight, but decided to wait til the morning to play. At 8 AM, Hendrix took the stage and gave one of the best performances ever. Even more amazing was the fact that Hendrix had been up for three days straight before, only to collapse from exhaustion after his set. The performance is still cited as one of the greatest ever in the history of Rock. And why shouldn't they, after all Hendrix say hello and goodbye to the Hippie Generation in two superb performances.

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Road Kill

Time to feature another band that I featured a few years back. And yes it's some more Thrash Metal. The Haunted have been forging ahead wit their take on The Gothenburg Sound for over two decades now. The band did release an early Live record entitled 'Live Rounds In Tokyo' that was originally released only in Japan before before repackaged stateside with their second album 'Made Me Do It'. The band went through a few vocalist shifts before releasing 2010's 'Roadkill'. 

'Roadkill' was recorded at The Melkweg in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on February 13, 2009. The album here features the original 16 song set with 5 extra bonus studio tracks. The band at this time was riding high with the success of the reunion with original vocalist Peter Dolving. Dolving gives it everything on this record. I mean nothing against the band, who amongst it's lineup has members who played in one of the most influential Swedish Metal bands, At The Gates. But this album is nothing without an amazing frontman. Open to close this is just in your face, get up and thrash metal.

Sadly the band only released one more album with Dolving before he and two other members of the band split in '12. The last effort with Dolving, 'Unseen' was seen as a huge departure from the bands sound. The album wasn't well received and the proverbial backlash ensued. The band went into a hiatus status for a bit before reuniting with second vocalist Marco Aro and original drummer Adrian Erlandsson. The band has since released a new album 'Exit Wounds' that picks up musically where the band was when Aro left.

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