For the Imperium - Hail the Monsters (2013)

2/24/13 5:10PM

http://www.levykauppax.fi/artist/for_the_imperium/hail_the_monsters/#cd

Whole album can be streamed at the above link.


1/19/13 1:25AM


Video for "Sudden Death"..not bad, although different in some ways, as it seems the vocals are more guttural overall.



1/8/13 5:03AM
I'm pretty excited to hear this record, as their Self-Titled debut record from 2011 finished pretty high on the AllMediaReviews Index as it's a record that impressed me a ton back then, and I still enjoy playing every so often.

For those unfamiliar, For the Imperium are a Finnish experimental/avant-garde progressive Metal band who have managed to mold their own style somehow while taking a bunch of influences such as Faith No More/Mike Patton, Avenged Sevenfold, Protest the Hero, Coheed and Cambria, System of a Down, and Between the Buried and Me among others.

But I think maybe what made that debut record the most impressive is of course, the quality of the songwriting. It almost always comes back to that, and that record has it, and hopefully this one will have it as well. And as that press release reads below, the 1st single "Sudden Death" is coming on January 18th, and then the whole thing comes on March 1st, just before/within the same week I now count 3 big records being released along with Cloud Cult and Brooke Waggoner. It seems like every year March has at least 1 week where a bunch of highly anticipated albums come out, and this year, at least the 1st week of March seems to be one of those weeks.

The cover art by the way, I can't avoid thinking, looks like the Baroness (and Kvertelak?) album covers. I wonder if this is the same artist, or someone whose a fan?

http://fortheimperium.com/#releases




2013, Warner Music Finland/Graphite Records

Track listing:
1. Take a Breath, Now You´re Going To War
2. Northern Rampage (Muscles and Gasoline)
3. Victim´s Day
4. Sexual Advisory (Explicit Content)
5. Heaven Shall Fall/Hell Will Return
6. Army of Death
7. Sudden Death
8. Satan Det Gör Ont
9. FRNDSHP Is Over! P.S. Say No More
10. Filthy Animal, Go and Save Yourself!

Produced by For The Imperium and Kari Huikuri
Recorded by Kari Huikuri at Scandal Recording [June/July 2012]
Mixed by Miitri Aaltonen at Falcon Nest [Sept. 2012] / Mastered by Mika Jussila at Finnvox [Oct. 2012]

FTI: Hakim Hietikko: vocals / Ville Suorsa: guitars / Jyri Helko: bass / Tuomas Rauhala: drums

Keyboards, programming, backing vocals and additional instruments by FTI.
All songs composed by FTI, all arrangements by Kari Huikuri & FTI.

http://www.facebook.com/fortheimperium/posts/509050705801560

All hail the new age of metal – Hail The Monsters!

Prepare for the retaliation of For the Imperium!

The new website for the band got released today. The stupendous description of the album "Hail the Monsters" is included, written by Mape Ollila (the grand old man of Finnish metal scene)

The Helsinki-based FOR THE IMPERIUM has given its metal a brand new outfit!

"Hail the Monsters", an album manufactured during the whirls of last year, is ready to be released and will see daylight on the 1st of March.

The band and the forthcoming album have already aroused active interest among the peers in the music industry through borders. It goes without saying that this spring, FOR THE IMPERIUM will pull an assortment of aces from their sleeves.

The prelude to "Hail the Monsters" will be heard on the 18th of January when FOR THE IMPERIUM will release the first single "Sudden Death". The perceptive lyrics and the astonishing video - which will be featured on Inferno Metal Magazine's website (www.inferno.fi) - inspired the band to donate all the profits acquired from the single to charity undeducted.

Commented by the band's bass player Jyri 'Käärmetukka' Helko: "We chose a group called Food Not Bombs from Helsinki because we wanted to support small local activity that actually makes a difference. Millions of people in the world are starving while staggering amounts of money are spent on rearmament. The purpose for Food Not Bombs -activities are to pay attention to this fact by giving away free food."

"Sadly, not too many bands these days dare to voice their opinions about anything. The lyrics tell us about a world where people are no longer treated as individuals, but statistics. Those who refuse to stand by silently, will be silenced."

"Hail the Monsters" will be released in Finland and Great Britain 1st of March 2013 (Warner Music Finland / Graphite Records). The remaining dates will be announced later.

Back

Well, I have a shiny new pc. of course I get to do all the fun installation work, creating cookies, yadayadayada that I have not been forced to do in probably 4 years.

But isn't that half the fun? perhaps

So, Muse leaked, finally. And rather predictably, but still entertainingly, some of the critical reviews on rateyourmusic are worth a read, or 2, 3, 12.

..

This is the sound of a band that doesn't know what they want to do. Parts of this album, such as Uprising and Undisclosed Desires, sound like pop music written for all of their new pre-teen Twilight-loving fans. Other songs like Resistance and Unnatural Selection are banal offerings of the same stadium friendly alternative rock Muse has been pumping out since Showbiz only with a bit more Freddie Mercury worship and weird "pseudo-prog" sounds. Then there's the complete mess United States of Eurasia, a song with so many ideas thrown together that I just want to throw up my hands in frustration when I get to the Chopin piece accompanied by field recordings. Finally the album ends with the three part Exogenesis boasting a full orchestra. It sounded like a great idea. Personally I love string arrangements, but Muse just waste the orchestra. It just sounds like simple stock orchestra music playing before or in the background of a generic Muse song. This album is simply a half-baked attempt from Matt & co at becoming more experimental without alienating their fanbase. I guess in the end it doesn't matter because the kids will still jump around and have fun at a sold-out Wembley to crap like MK ULTRA.

P.S. - LOVE IS OUR RESISTANCE <3 YEAH, THEY GOT BRIAN MAY AND TIMBALAND TO DO SOME COLLABS AND SHIT

so, having only heard the 2 leaked songs previously, these comments among many others have given me more curiosity. is this going to finally be the record they step up to the plate and be the statement album they have needed to make since, well, they existed? or are these reviews more accurate and we'll have another 3 or 4 years to wait until they finally live up to their potential?...

Mr.Owl how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie-pop?..ah 1, ah 2, ah tree..ahh tree...doo doo doo doo doo..how-many-licks-does-it-take-to-get-to-the-center-of-a-tootsie-pop..The World, may never know.

Baroness new album also leaked over my home-pc vacation. Some reviews suggest it's a step-up..more proggy. Could they be this year's Burst?..I wouldn't be shocked. I'll know soon.

Ramona Falls tomorrow night at the cave/entry. I should have won free tix from Radio Kah this afternoon. I dialed the wrong number damnit. My budget is taking a hit of late you could say. Saving $12 on a ticket would have been nice. Damn.

ProgPowerUSA in a few days. Enchant plays Thursday night. I arrive Friday afternoon. Hopefully I'll be able to talk to the guys on Friday or Saturday at least. Afterall, i should have a fair amount of free time given I really only am coming for 2 or maybe 3 bands. I may checkout Diablo Swing Orchestra and Royal Hunt. Diablo though, the opera singing may have to be more stomach-able live. Nightwish never worked for me. I dunno. And Royal Hunt I do like, but would prefer DC Cooper singing. I like 1 of their albums "Paradox" with Cooper singing. He won't be there as far as I know.

Crimson Glory I will watch. I was into them for a brief period in the mid 90's. "Transcendence" I still have nostalgia for. I was sad about Midnight passing.

But the real meat of this festival is Fates Warning and Orphaned Land, with Andre Matos gone. So, more or less among the 10 bands on both days, i am seeing 2 as a priority. 1 as a likely, and maybe 2 others. I'll likely have my share of free time telling tons of power and progmetal fans how alternative/indie prog and technical death metal is more my scene now. Why I've been gone for 5 years. And even that if they want to actually hear music that is doing different things, they need to stop getting force-fed the genre-specific music that the bands at the festival are doing year-after-year. And perhaps even tell them how prog metal was a lot better in the 90's and early 2000's anyway, lol. But we'll see. They're nice folks no matter, which hopefully will be another benefit for this return attendance for me after 5 years. Even if the price was $140, lol.

9



Somewhat Tim Burton ANBC-ish, and not that far from a Pixar-style (and quality). Given I received a free-pass for this thing at the last minute (and actually would have been up for seeing "Extract" instead, but no means to theater-jump), I can't say I was disappointed in it.

the story, really not all that different than your hollywood-animated protagonist/coming-of-age deal. The origin of the 9 robots? parts of their creator souls? or whatver, I found probably the most interesting. But this could have used more perhaps. Kind of a Lost-like style backstories. But if the audience is more for kids, kids don't need tons of backstory.

Animation-wise, yeah it was quite impressive visually, albeit rather dark and gothic, but it's Tim Burton, go figure.

If you're into Animated movies, go see it. If you like man vs machine stories, go see it. If you want another Wall-E or UP, rent/wait-for-tv/skip-it.