Rock On! Collection - IRIS

Welcome to the Rock On! Collection. The Rock On! Collection will be a series of my favourite artists and bands and the albums of theirs that I have reviewed. In this first edition, I am compiling my reviews of albums from IRIS, better known as Will Ryan of DAGames.

IRIS has quickly become a staple part of my day-to-day listening and I couldn't ask for much more. Each album and each song outperforms the last and they're just a delight to listen to. The connectedness of the albums with an entire story behind it is masterfully executed and is very intriguing. IRIS is an artist I highly recommend you listen to. Trust me, the music is incredible.

So far, I have reviewed all 2 albums released by IRIS as of 01/11/20, and a third one, Dawn of the Dimetrix, is coming some time within the next year.

Heart of an Artist (2018) - 10 / 10
Full review here.

 

Goliath's Throne (2019) - 10 / 10
Full review here.

DAGames' YouTube Channel here.

Fight The Fury - Still Breathing EP (2018)

When I first listened to this EP in 2018, planning for Rock On! to be a segment for my school's radio, I didn't think too highly of it. Understandably, this was disappointing for me, as this was a Skillet side project. 11 months on, my opinions have since changed. Still Breathing EP is the debut EP by metal band Fight The Fury. Fight The Fury was conceived with the hopes of satisfying Skillet fans who prefer their earlier, more heavier music.

In the prototype radio show I tried to bring into fruition, there was a separate version of Rock On!, entitled Rock On! For Just a Little Bit. This was to be used for shorter pieces of music, like singles and EPs, but was not needed when I formed this blog. Nevertheless, let's get into the music. Still Breathing contains 5 tracks, lasting just over 20 minutes, making it a nice, quick listen. And as there are less songs, I feel like I can go into a bit more detail.

Let's start with "My Demons". The opening track to the EP is honestly, a really good start. It's punchy; the drums have a great attacking feel, which works perfectly with the rest of the instruments. The vocals are exceptionally well performed, and carry with them a lot of emotion. Despite all the praise I am giving it, it is not my favourite track on the EP. I like it a lot, but it's not as good as "I Cannot", which is my favourite song on the EP.

"Dominate Me" is the second track, and the most overtly Christian track. It's a whole lot heavier than the previous track, in terms of guitars and drums. The guitars also have a scratchy feel, which does work well with the other components. As an atheist, the lyrics seem completely wrong and weird, but from a religious view, they don't. They describe a person wanting to be an example of God, or something like that. Overall, this track is great. The fast paced vocals, along with the heavy backing track, hype you up and make you feel ready to tackle pretty much anything.

After that comes "Still Burning". Now, this track is a whole lot better than "My Demons" and even more so than "Dominate Me". The more toned down vocals is such a relief for me, and makes this track a whole tonne better. The drums are some of the most powerful I've ever heard, and paired with the guitars, it becomes incredible to listen to. This is one of my favourites on the EP, that's for sure.

"I Cannot" is the fourth track on the album, and is my favourite out of the 5 on the EP. I think it's the vocals which make me like this song a whole lot. They're emotional; they're powerful; they make you want to sing along at full volume, and I love songs like that. The backing track is also brilliant, but the vocals play a vital role in the success of the song for me. I love this song. I love it a whole lot more than the next track.

"Lose Hold of It All" is the final track of the EP, and it is, in my opinion, the worst out of the 5. I do like it a lot more than I did 11 months ago, but it's still not as good as the other tracks featured. The vocals make or break something for me, and the vocals on this particular song feel forced kind of. They feel a lot less forced than I thought before, but still forced nonetheless. The backing track is the best part of this song. It just works really well. As I said in my plan for this song 11 months ago, "I feel like this is an OK ending to the EP." and it's true. It's OK.

Thanks for sticking through this. For the conclusion, Still Breathing EP is a great beginning for Christian metal band Fight The Fury. It definitely feels a lot different to Skillet's material, but I guess that's why this band was conceived. The guitars and drums were pretty good throughout and the vocals were packed with emotion. Overall, a brilliant EP with only a few flaws.

Favourite Tracks: "My Demons", "Still Burning", "I Cannot"

Rating: 8 / 10

Monster Magnet - Mindfucker (2018)

Delving back into the realms of unfamiliarity, and my first album with an expletive as the album name to be reviewed, Mindfucker is the tenth studio album by Stoner rock and heavy metal band Monster Magnet. And with those genres, it makes the style of it similar to Clutch's Book of Bad Decisions, which is an album that I really enjoyed, but I don't think I can say the same about this one. With it being a kind of rock I don't exactly listen to, and some songs being dragged out longer than they should, makes this an album not exactly set up for the greatest review.

The least I can say is that I'm unimpressed. The album suffers from the same problems Rainier Fog has, thus letting me down. The song "Drowning" felt like it was going on for far too long, considering it is 7:21 in length. "Drowning" is also the only song to have a different, calmer style, whilst everything else is guitars and drums that sound like they're from 70s-80s. Some of the song's vocals, brought to you by frontman Dave Wyndorf, were oftentimes drowned out and made incomprehensible by the loud backing tracks featured in some of the songs. I went into listening to this with high hopes and they were not fulfilled. I hope that Monster Magnet's albums aren't all like this, otherwise that would be greatly disappointing.

To draw a conclusion, I was a fair bit disappointed. Mindfucker, in my opinion, was a mediocre performance with songs I couldn't connect to. I'm unaware of what Monster Magnet's other albums are like, but this one has set a low bar. Not the greatest album I've listened to, that's for sure.

Favourite Track: "Mindfucker"

Rating: 3 / 10

IRIS - Heart of an Artist (2018)

From YouTuber Will Ryan, better known as DAGames, and under the moniker "IRIS", comes his debut album Heart of an Artist, born out his own personal hardships in life. Now, this album was released in the May of 2018, and I had no idea it existed until I discovered it in September. "Better late than never", they say, and I can most definitely agree. This album is a rock-fest, filled with 10 amazing tunes, an intro, and an outro. When I first listened to this, I was blown away by the capability Ryan has as an artist, and not only that. I was blown away by how much passion and soul he put into the album.

I remember walking home from school, just jamming out to "Lost Now Found" and "You're Just Making Us Stronger" and still, they are arguably the 2 best songs on the album. At least, in my opinion. On the subject of the songs themselves, the majority of them are absolute bangers, with composition created with drive and determination. The most personal song to Ryan is "As The Lights Go Out" being described as one "close to my heart", and with that, it's a more relaxed piano-based song, rather than drums and guitar. This being said, Ryan did make a rock version of it and with everything else thrown in the mix, he added more emotion to an already emotional song. The album in its entirety is born out of his hardships in life and as a YouTuber, which is shown through the lyrics of each individual song. With the highs comes the lows, meaning there was 1 song that I'm not particularly fond of, which is "Castle That Never Dies". While I say "song", it's a story.

"The story is about my struggles and my friends and family being the characters in the story, but also represents that hardest thing I've ever had to write in my entire life... I hope not for this to be a favourite song... But a story that I can tell all of you."

Don't me wrong, it's not bad. It's another personal song written by Ryan, but the reason it's not my favourite is mainly due the fact it's not a song. I do like it, but it's not my favourite.

In conclusion, this deep, driven, heart-and-soul-filled debut album by DAGames / IRIS is one of empowerment, almost. Detailing your life experiences, allowing others to listen, allowing others to relate is something I will greatly respect. Can't wait to see what The Goliath's Throne has to offer.

Favourite Tracks: "Lost Now Found", "Too Dangerous", "You're Just Making Us Stronger", "Heart of an Artist"

Rating: 10 / 10

Clutch - Book of Bad Decisions (2018)

Well within the realm of unfamiliarity, and laced with all the guitar solos you could ever dream of, blues rock band Clutch offers an album that you just can't pass up. While the album's rock style isn't my favourite, Book of Bad Decisions is a jet-pack joyride from start to finish. What astounded me the most on this album is Neil Fallon's vocals. The backing tracks added a whole tonne of flavour but Fallon's majestic vocals made the songs almost 100% better. As I have not listened to other Clutch material, I'm unable to compare it with their previous material, but it has definitely given me a great impression of just how great their music is.

15 tracks, 15 astonishing tunes to fill up an hour. The type of Rock I listen to is vastly different to this, but I do have to say that these songs are otherworldly. When I first heard Fallon's vocals, I was immediately hooked (similar to me listening to Skillet on WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 for the first time). The lyrical content to some of these songs, like the lyrics for "In Walks Barbarella", may seem like nonsense but how they were sung added a whole lot of fruity essence to impressively performed songs. The backing tracks with the drums and guitars were pristine and the leaps into the choruses were mind-blowing; the best leaps being the ones featured in "Lorelei". However, some songs had some slight faults. Namely "How to Shake Hands" featured a guitar riff at the beginning which did not resonate well with me at all. The vocals in "How to Shake Hands" didn't quite grab my attention, either, nor did they in "Vision Quest", but other than that, they are really solid songs all-round.

As a conclusion, there really isn't much to say. As I went in, I had no idea as to what was coming my way, but I am so glad that I did listen to this album. Fun, lively, and has some absolute bangers. Highly recommend.

Favourite Tracks: All
Rating: 8 / 10

Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog (2018)

Hello, and welcome to Rock On!, a blog about my opinions and reviews on albums and the like in the Rock and Metal genres. I'd like to expand and add to this blog as much as I can. I am very interested in music and what it has to offer and I'd like to share it with the world! The material that I will be covering in the blog is music that is sorted under the Rock and Metal genres, with the albums, EPs, and singles being from a more recent point in time. I will review older music, but the majority of it will be more recent content.

Starting off in unfamiliar territory, Alice in Chains’ latest album Rainier Fog offers 10 tracks that go from good to mediocre and back to good again. As I am not familiar with Alice in Chains’ content, I didn’t exactly know what to expect but I felt let down by some parts of the album. The start and end tracks were what kept the album afloat, with them having a great blend of vocals and instruments, whilst the middle felt a bit clumsy, ranging from slightly clumsy to the vocals being completely incomprehensible. The end tracks were what saved the album from true disrepair.

From my perspective, some of the tracks, like “Drone” and “Maybe”, felt like they were going on forever, in which these tracks were not the most fun to listen to. William DuVall’s and Jerry Cantrell’s vocals felt in complete contrast to the guitar riffs and sequences that they were playing in these songs. The worst song for vocals was “Deaf Ears Blind Eyes” as they were completely drowned out by the guitars and drums. Absolutely no connection was felt between me and the song; it felt mediocre at best. That’s not to say that they were all bad. Tracks like “Rainier Fog”, “Never Fade”, and “All I Am” were a pleasant experience and overall great tracks. The instruments worked well, the vocals worked well, and I felt myself tapping my feet and, at some points, headbanging to them as they offered some pretty good material to listen to.

Overall, Rainier Fog is an average album with some less than average songs. Some of the material perked the album up but most of it felt prolonged and didn’t need to be as long as it did. As I said before, not all tracks were bad. Particularly the end tracks were the best, and are what saved it from being a real disaster, in my opinion. It's not the best album I've listened to but for what it's worth, it was not bad.

Favourite tracks: "Rainier Fog", "Never Fade", "All I Am"
Rating: 5 / 10