METSATÖLL – Äio (CD) Review (2010) for MMM

METSATÖLL – Äio (CD) | Estonia | April 2010 by Eddy_litE
Style: Folk Metal | Running time: 60:26 (Tracks: 14)

This is definitely the surprise of the month for me! Being a long time fan of their neigbors Finntroll, it was a great experience listening to this album the first time. Since the last few albums by the Finnish trolls failed to impress me I could use some fresh folklore metal. I am always interested in new territory, especially if it is music that is much more than just entertainment. Estonian native Metsatöll (which translates as 'wolf') provided me not only with a very impressive album but also with a very satisfying evening of absorbing their culture.

Everything about this release made me wanna get further into the storytelling and wanting to know where it all came from. So I found myself cruising the internet and reading about a country, oddly enough not that far from where I live, with a rich history and a very different culture than mine. And it amazed me that I didn't know that much about this intriguing country and especially this amazing band which exsists since 1999 and released an impressive list of material throughout the years. "Äio" (which symbolizes the essence of sleep) is their fourth full length release, and the first for Spinefarm Records, but the band has released 14 titles in total. A handful of those are singles/videos but they also released some DVDs of which "Kõva Kont" (a double DVD package containing over 5 hours of material) seems to be a must-have for me.

Much of Metsatöll's material used in the painting of the scenery, featuring flutes and various other native traditional instruments, is based on the wars for independence in the 13th and 14th centuries which makes you expect something grim and aggressive. While listening to the music the opposite mood is triggered. The songwriting is often very catchy and quite easy to get into but it also stays very close to the folklore of the region. For starters all lyrics are sung in the Estonian language. But before you start to think that Metsatöll uses metal as a gimmickery and should be classified as folkmetal with the emphasis on folklore I can tell you that is not the case. The balance between the two is spot on and are forged together in a way that makes the album compact and easy to swallow. Having the album mixed and mastered at the famous Finnvox Studios helped in that area too.

Many of the songs have that typical "beerdrinking & hellraising" basis with the massive masculin runo-singing that is typical for the region. And the more traditional parts are never too long, dull or difficult to scare the average metalhead away. In fact, I think this album can reach a very wide range of metalheads. Although translations in English are provided some of the archaic history is difficult to translate. It doesn't really matter, it still speaks to me and I get a great feeling of joy and might out of it all. I guess this album is going to serve as a party starter many a time from now on and I am sure most of my friends want to buy the album after hearing it. If you are already used to the odd-sounding language and like Finntroll or Korpiklaani you're going to like this album I'm sure. If you are not sure, just listen to the songs either on their myspace or in a recordstore and you'll be surprised. Chances are you'll find a new world to discover just as I did.

Listen to previews of the Äio album here

Visit the Metsatöll website: http://www.metsatoll.ee

Recordlabel: http://www.spinefarm.fi

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/metsatoll

Rating: 90/100

Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force - Marching Out (German first pressing)(24 bit RX MBit Remaster 2009)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Marching Out Cover Art


Studio album by Yngwie J. Malmsteen

Released - 1985
Genre - Neo-classical metal, power metal

Length - 45:03
Label - Polydor

Producer - Yngwie J. Malmsteen


Professional reviews
• Allmusic link



Alternate Cover


Marching Out is an album by Yngwie J. Malmsteen which was released in 1985.

Rising Force is a Yngwie J. Malmsteen project as well as his debut solo album released in 1984. It is also the title of a song on Malmsteen's album Odyssey. Rising Force is credited as the beginning of Malmsteen's significant development of Neo-Classical metal in the 1980s.

Yngwie Johann Malmsteen (pronounced ING-vay MAALM-steen in English) (born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck on June 30, 1963) is a Swedish guitarist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. Malmsteen became notable in the mid-1980s for his technical fluency and neo-classical metal compositions, often incorporating high speed picking with harmonic minor scales, diminished scales and sweep picked arpeggios. Four of his albums, from 1984 to 1988, Rising Force, Marching Out, Trilogy, and Odyssey, ranked in the top 100 for sales.[1]
For more info on Yngwie & Rising Force visit Wikipedia here -->

Track listing

# Title Lyrics Music Length

1. "Prelude" (instrumental) Yngwie Malmsteen 1:00
2. "I'll See the Light, Tonight" Jeff Scott Soto, Malmsteen Malmsteen 4:24
3. "Don't Let It End" Soto, Malmsteen Malmsteen 4:07
4. "Disciples of Hell" Malmsteen Malmsteen 5:53
5. "I Am a Viking" Malmsteen Malmsteen 5:58
6. "Overture 1383" (instrumental) Malmsteen 2:59
7. "Anguish and Fear" Malmsteen Malmsteen 3:47
8. "On the Run Again" Soto Malmsteen 3:22
9. "Soldier without Faith" Malmsteen Malmsteen 6:08
10. "Caught in the Middle" Soto, Malmsteen Malmsteen 4:17
11. "Marching Out" (instrumental) Malmsteen 3:08

Personnel
• Yngwie J. Malmsteen: All Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Background Vocals, Moog Guitar Pedals
• Jens Johansson: Keyboards
• Anders Johansson: Drums
• Marcel Jacob: Bass
• Jeff Scott Soto: Vocals

________________________________________


Notes on this release:

New vinyltransfer using the original first West German Polydor/Phonogram pressing.

This release is the best sounding version I’ve ever owned. I also have owned the US first pressing (too wobbly and too noisy) and have at least three different CD-pressings of which the first German pressing is the best sounding in my opinion. Oddly enough it is the (old) Japanese pressings that completely suck audibly. There where the original sounds a tad too bright, specially on the opener, the Japanese did sound pretty muddy and were lacking any brightness mostly. I’m quite sure that the way you’ll hear it in this version is how Yngwie has intended it to sound back in the day. I’ve sold the US vinyl some years ago due to bankrupty and although I wasn’t fond of it’s vinyl quality the cover art was the best of all versions (as pictured "alternate cover").

Because of the use of high quality vinyl and high standards in quality control procedures vinylpressing from the Phonogram group of companies in the 1980s were top-notch. The only point of criteria could be that the vinyls could have been a tad thicker. Because of this they were prone to static load. But if you knew how to deal with that there was no problem with that.

Quality of record is simply pristine. It has been barely played before this rip because when I bought my albums back in the day I usually made a copy to a Nakamichi tapedeck (truly miss that beast some days!) and played that.

My transfers are straight rips and I never use any EQ - NR - or level changes on my rips - unless otherwise noted –


This has been a request from Mallwalker - Hope it was worth the wait for you!

Enjoy!

EddylitE - december 2009


* ClickRepair was not used on this transfer – manually declicked)
SoX SRC plugin for Sample Rate Conversion was also not used on this transfer
Up until this transfer (september 2009) I was manually declicking and used iTunes 7's native SRC. Just a short time after I found out SoX does a much better job. Maybe one day I'll do a rerip, although this one sounds pretty darn great already.


©2009 - Hipper than Hell Records * Eddy_litE appears courtesy of himself * You have been Aped

"The music in these files was originally recorded on analog equipment.
We have attempted to preserve, as closely as possible, the sound of the original recording.
Because of it's high resolution, however, these files can reveal limitations of the source."
________________________________________



Turn Me Up!™

To preserve the excitement, emotion and dynamics of the original performances this record is intentionally quieter than some. For full enjoyment simply Turn Me Up! (www.TurnMeUp.org)

________________________________________


Rapidshare Links:
TextSnip

Hotfile Links:
TextSnip


pw: Vinyl_qualitY

Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force (German first pressing)(24 bit RX MBit Remaster 2009)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Rising Force Cover Art

Studio album by Yngwie J. Malmsteen

Released - 1984
Genre - Neo-classical metal, power metal
Length - 39:16
Label - Polydor

Producer - Yngwie J. Malmsteen

Professional reviews
• Allmusic link


Rising Force is a Yngwie J. Malmsteen project as well as his debut solo album released in 1984. It is also the title of a song on Malmsteen's album Odyssey. Rising Force is credited as the beginning of Malmsteen's significant development of Neo-Classical metal in the 1980s.

Yngwie Johann Malmsteen (pronounced ING-vay MAALM-steen in English) (born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck on June 30, 1963) is a Swedish guitarist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. Malmsteen became notable in the mid-1980s for his technical fluency and neo-classical metal compositions, often incorporating high speed picking with harmonic minor scales, diminished scales and sweep picked arpeggios. Four of his albums, from 1984 to 1988, Rising Force, Marching Out, Trilogy, and Odyssey, ranked in the top 100 for sales.[1]

For more info on Yngwie & Rising Force visit Wikipedia here -->

Track listing
• All Songs Written & Arranged By Yngwie Malmsteen.

# Title Length

1. "Black Star" 4:53
2. "Far Beyond the Sun" 5:52
3. "Now Your Ships Are Burned" 4:11
4. "Evil Eye" 5:14
5. "Icarus' Dream Suite Op. 4" (based on Tomaso Albinoni's "Adagio")
8:33
6. "As Above, So Below" 4:39
7. "Little Savage" 5:22
8. "Farewell" 0:49

Personnel
• Yngwie J. Malmsteen: All electric, acoustic guitars, bass guitar and Taurus bass pedals
• Barriemore Barlow: Drums
• Jens Johansson: Keyboards
• Jeff Scott Soto: Vocals on tracks 3 and 6

Production
• Yngwie Malmsteen: Producer
• Peter Bargo, Les Claypool: Engineers

________________________________________


Notes on this release:

New vinyltransfer using the original first West German Polydor/Phonogram pressing.
This release is the best sounding version I’ve ever owned. I had both the US first pressing (too wobbly and too noisy) and a Japanese which sounded a bit umbalanced tonically and sadly was abused with a chipped stylus. (bought that one second hand)

Because of the use of high quality vinyl and high standards in quality control procedures vinylpressing from the Phonogram group of companies in the 1980s were top-notch. The only point of criteria could be that the vinyls could have been a tad thicker. Because of this they were prone to static load. But if you knew how to deal with that there was no problem with that.

Quality of record is near pristine. It has been barely played before this rip because when I bought my albums back in the day I usually made a copy to a Nakamichi tapedeck (truly miss that beast some days!) and played that.

My transfers are straight rips and I never use any EQ - NR - or level changes on my rips - unless otherwise noted –

Enjoy!

Eddy_litE - december 2009



* SoX SRC plugin for Sample Rate Conversion was not used on this transfer, this is an older rip (from august 2009 to be exact) and I still used iTunes 7's SRC. Though it got very positive results, SoX is a lot better.
I also didn't use ClickRepair on this title since up until recently I manually declicked. (what was I thinking?! :P)

©2009 - Hipper than Hell Records * Eddy_litE appears courtesy of himself * You have been Aped

"The music in these files was originally recorded on analog equipment.
We have attempted to preserve, as closely as possible, the sound of the original recording.
Because of it's high resolution, however, these files can reveal limitations of the source."
________________________________________



Turn Me Up!™

To preserve the excitement, emotion and dynamics of the original performances this record is intentionally quieter than some. For full enjoyment simply Turn Me Up! (www.TurnMeUp.org)

________________________________________


Rapidshare Links:
TextSnip

pw: Vinyl_qualitY