Rob "the metal guy" Rants About Metal #12

    So I finally sat down and listened to the new Nile track, “Call of Destruction.” Well, if anyone was hoping for a strong blistering technical death metal track, they would not have been disappointed.

    Nile is a band that has something to prove with their upcoming album, “What Should Not Be Unearthed.” Their last album seemed to receive mixed responses from fans with the negative reviews tending to be very critical. I believe Nile just needs to keep offering brutal tech death metal and find ways to strengthen the presentation of their lyrical content like on the band’s early releases. I can honestly say the new track, “Call of Destruction,” is a massive step in the right direction. The track is slamming with bombastic sounding wicked compositions. Another area that really stood out is the lyrical content. Nile writes about how there is this call to destroy historic artifacts and monuments in the Middle East going on right now. They even put a disclaimer in the beginning of the video to tell people that they are not trying to put forth a religious or political agenda, but they want to raise awareness about the destruction of human history going on in the world. While most bands tend to leave me hesitant after releasing the first single to a new album...Nile has me sold. Where can I pre-order this damn thing?!

    Alright, next topic that I want to address and evaluate. Recently Helloween announced they will be coming to North America. However, they will only be playing seven shows. The closest show to where I live is in Los Angeles...and that is still about six plus hours of driving. What is going on? Okay, I will do my best to analyze and offer a possible explanation.

    Helloween is an ionic power metal band who seems to get plenty of nods in the metal community. Unfortunately, I have noticed that certain fans only reference the classic Helloween albums and seem to write their new music off as generic. There have been similar cases where a European metal band puts out a new album and American metal fans do not feel the new release lives up to the band’s earlier more iconic albums. Now, because of this a band from Europe will probably decide that touring all across North America will not likely be a financial success. Thus, they only play a few shows where the market looks to be best for them. Helloween’s new album, “My God Given Right,” in my opinion is a great release and features some really good songs. These guys still have the ability to write solid power metal songs along with displaying brilliant musicianship. As I brought up earlier in my evaluation, I think most American fans are stuck believing, “Keeper of the Seven Keys Part One and Two,” are the last two albums worth noting. European power metal fans seem to be more up to date with the genre’s new releases, so the main market for most power metal bands is probably Europe. I might need to move to Europe if I want a better shot at seeing Helloween live...

    That is all I have for this week you metal maniacs. Feel free to weigh in with your own opinions and offer some possible points about the topics I have brought up. Cheers!
-Rob "the metal guy" \m/