10. Halloween Rock Special

Justin and Noah bring you the music to rock out all October long, plus Justin's Hot Flash explores the classic New Orleans TV show Morgus Presents.





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Nightmare Revisited-Album Review

    Continuing our look at spookier music leading up to our Halloween episode this Sunday, we are looking at the album Nightmare Revisited. This is an album that features various Rock bands covering the songs from the Tim Burton classic Nightmare Before Christmas. The album has a mixture between covers and parts of the original score, featuring artists like Marilyn Manson, Korn and Rise Against in between Danny Elfman scores.

    First off, I have actually yet to see Nightmare Before Christmas so any nostalgia or emotional attachment to these songs is gonna be lost on me; I’m looking at these wholly on how the song sounds and how they compare to the original versions. Also I’m really not going to comment on the scores lifted straight from the movie because I really don’t have much to say about film scores in general. With all those qualifiers out of the way, let’s get started.

    Starting off the covers on this album is Marilyn Manson’s cover of This Is Halloween. Having Manson do this cover was the perfect choice because he is one of the few vocalists who has enough different voices to cover the wide range of characters that sing this tune in the movie. Manson and his band do an amazing job of transforming this largely orchestral track into a creepy hard rock song that wouldn’t be out of place on one of their albums. As much as I enjoy the original version of This Is Halloween, the Manson version has become the definitive version for me.

    Next up we have the All American Rejects version of Jack’s Lament. Unlike Manson they really don’t change up the arrangement much from the original aside mildly speeding it up. Whereas the Manson version of This Is Halloween arguably surpasses the original, this cover is really not that good. The main issue here is that Danny Elfman’s performance as Jack Skellington is bassy and growling while Tyson Ritter isn’t exactly Tom Waits. Honestly I don’t know that anybody other than Elfman could nail this track, but All American Rejects were not a good choice for this cover.

    What’s This? By Flyleaf is interesting because of how much it differs from the original, not even really following the same tempo as the original in a lot of places. While I still don’t like it as much as Elfman’s performance, because of how different it is I don’t dislike it as much as I do Jack’s Lament. Lacey’s performance on this track is really breathy and almost ethereal sounding, which works great over the aggressive guitar driven music and does a good job of matching the tone of the original.

    Sparklehorse sucks; that’s all.

    Next we have the second best track on the album, second only to Manson; Kidnap The Sandy Claws by KoRn. Just like Manson’s multiple voices for the characters in that song, Jonathan Davis does an even better job of having dynamic passages and giving each character their own sound. This is a natural evolution of the original song into a creepy Nu Metal track that is absolutely KoRn and fits the insanity and tone of Tim Burton.

    Directly following KoRn is Rise Against’s Punk Rock tinged rendition of Making Christmas. This is another one of the covers that changes up the sound without losing the feeling of the original and while it may not be better than the movie version, it is a valid cover (unlike Sparklehorse).

    The last of the covers that improves upon and replaces the original (at least in my mind) is Amy Lee’s rendition of Sally’s Song. While the original was good, Amy Lee’s vocals are just a massive step up in quality, with the hauntingly gothic tone of her voice really conveying the despair and hopelessness of the lyrics. Also their is a perfect bridge featuring some rock guitars and ad libs by Lee before she comes back and delivers the last line of the song. This, along with Manson and KoRn masterfully covered the songs from this movie.

    The last of the covers on this album is Poor Jack being covered by the Plain White T’s. This suffers from some of the same issues as Jack’s Lament having a singer who’s voice really cannot touch Elfman’s performance. The difference here is that at least on this version they tried to follow the original as closely as possible and do a pretty good job here. Nonetheless it’s not better than the original.

    Overall this album is a mixed bag, having three great covers a few decent ones and Sparklehorse. The bits of the movie score throughout are also kind of cool, but to me the main draw is the covers. I personally love about half the covers off of this album, and their are some cool ones that were on a different album including Fall Out Boy doing a much better version of Jack’s Lament. I highly recommend checking these out if you were a fan of the original soundtrack or film, but expect to be disappointed by a few of them.

Islander Power Under Control: An Album A Day

An Album A Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

  

   Islander are an interesting band; their first album, Violence and Destruction was almost entirely one of nu metal revival, complete with a guest spot by POD front man Sonny Sandoval. But after literally the entire band left except for lead singer Mikey Carvajal, Islander’s sound also evolved, incorporating punk, alternative, ska punk, hip hop and modern metal into their sound. The album that came out of this mixing of genres was Power Under Control, which for my money is head and shoulders better than their debut.

    The lineup for this album consisted of JR Bareis on guitar, Arin Illejay on drums and Ezekiel Vasquez playing bass. Bareis is the current lead singer and guitarist for KoRn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch’s solo project, Illejay was the second drummer for Avenged Sevenfold and Vasquez was the bass player for alt rockers ForeverAtLast. Given the eclectic styles and influences each of these artists brings, not to mention the clear Deftones influence on Carvajal, it’s no wonder the album contains so many genres.

    The first thing I can say about Islander is that Carvajal is one of the greatest front men in the modern rock and metal scenes. First off, this guy have like 15 different ways of singing, ranging from death growls and screaming to legitimately good rap vocals, amazing cleans and a unique style that borrows from Che without being a rip off. On top of that, Carvajal owns every crowd that he plays in front of live, combining raw charisma with singing ability and a knack for never looking lost during instrumental breaks.

    The album as a whole is something that must be experienced in one sitting, while many songs are great on their own they all work better within the context of the album. Tracks like Darkness, Bad Guy, Think It Over and Casket work great as stand alone songs, but work way better within the semi narrative of the album. While there is no definite story, the placement of each song seems to have a general flow from a sinner lost in darkness to someone who has found meaning in life.

    Islander, similarly to Twenty One Pilots have songs that are filled with vague Christian themes and spiritual elements. These themes likely stem from Carvajal’s faith, who like Tyler Joseph is not interested in making Christian Rock music but doesn’t shy away from putting those themes into his lyrics. This is one of the better bands at writing songs that can be enjoyed both from a Christian perspective or just from rock or metal fan perspective.

    Some of the best moments on this album come from songs like Devil Red, Beelzebub and Casket that haphazardly switch from alternative rock tracks into full on metal songs before switching back again. The sharp contrast between Beelzebub’s xylophone driven sound to the harsh vocals and metal guitar on the climax is amazing and perfectly sums up the feel of this album. There are also elements of reggae and ska punk on this album that are played much straighter than the Papa Roach/ POD esque reggae nu metal of their first album.

    Calling this album nu metal doesn’t really feel right, but ultimately I don’t know what else to label this as. I feel like the Deftones’ influence is definitely felt here in the way that the album has an almost progressive feel that is too big for the nu metal moniker. Power Under Control also features some really slick production that allows soft tracks like Bad Guy to feel just as powerful as Green Slime Man or Darkness.

    This album overall is a masterpiece and a testament to what a creative and talented band can do with the much maligned nu metal genre. I truly believe if this album had came out in 2001 that Islander would be one of the biggest bands of the nu metal scene. It will be interesting to see if we get a third album from these guys and what it sounds like, especially since Carvajal and the rest of the band that were on this album have amicable split.

Album on Google Play
Album on Itunes
Album on Amazon