music Empire of the Sun – Two Vines By the time many bands get to their third album, they decide it’s time to change the formula that got them that far, unwisely adding or subtracting elements that typically lead to failure. Empire of the Sun don’t do anything like that here, and members Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore seem content to ride their shiny, helium-filled pop balloon until it floats straight into the sun, exploding in ribbons of sparkling melodies, gleaming synths, percolating beats and man-machine vocals. The duo concoct music that sounds like a giant hug, sweet and smooth with a powerfully beating heart. Some will lap it up, whilst others will take it in very small, bitesized doses. Kenny Chesney – Cosmic Hallelujah Kenny Chesney’s 17th studio album is packed with rhythmically savvy country songs. More than that, Chesney chooses to load this album up with songs about the modern condition: Noise explicitly tackles the digital overload of the 21st century, while Trip Around the Sun opens up the album with a nod to climate change, and Rich and Miserable is an admission that materialism is a dead end. Cosmic Hallelujah veers towards happy but the subtext can be sad; Chesney recognises the world is changing, so he does his best to hang on to the things that matter to him, while allowing himself to embrace oversaturated modernity. Testament – Brotherhood of the Snake The American thrash pioneers’ latest album offers an excellent sonic portrait of Testament doing what they do best – aggressive, riffheavy, in-your-face metal. There is a fun concept at work here, but this is more a trackby-track listening experience that adds up to a massive whole. If there is anything really different about the jams on offer, it’s the onslaught of killer guitar breaks by Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick. There are solos everywhere, but they are woven so tightly into the fabric of the riff and breakdown structure, they are inseparable. What’s the story? The Stage is the seventh studio album by the American heavy metal titans. Although there were rumours that the band had returned to the studio, the album was dropped in as a complete surprise during a Facebook live stream as the group performed an impromptu concert on the roof of the Capitol Records building. The album is the first to feature Brooks Wackerman on drums after the departure of Arin Ilejay in 2015, and is the band’s longest studio album at 73 minutes and 40 seconds. Worth a listen? In short, this is the best Avenged Sevenfold album in a decade. Their three previous efforts, since 2005’s groundbreaking City of Evil, were fraught with numerous problems, such as a move to a more commercial and ill-received sound, stripping down complexity in favour of evoking classic rock bands of old, and too much studio overdubbing and production. Here, the band goes back to what it does best as elements of thrash metal permeate through the more elegant sections. Some songs use fast drum patterns, blast beats and rapid riff structure, with singer M. Shadows reverting to his guttural screaming, not heard since the band’s infancy. Lyrically, this is the group’s strongest yet, and as a concept album it is epic in both its ambition and its length. It deals with the theme of artificial intelligence and the future of mankind, as seen on the record’s masterpiece Exist, which features astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson making a spoken word appearance at the end, which he wrote specifically for the album. Shorts Verdict: A heavy, complex and progressive return. Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage 124 December 2016 www.bahrainthismonth.com
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