Sound Island

I am deeply impressed by the sound this baby produces. It was a pleasant experience to use this BOSS’ creature. Now it is definitely one of my most favourite distortion pedals along with BOSS MT-2 Metal Zone and AMT Fatal Tube.

As its name says, first of all, by using this effects pedal you can get a heavy metal sound like, you know, Iron Maiden. But furthermore, it also provides you with wide range of distortion settings so you can find grunge or nearly overdrive sound as well.

I personally used it to form ’80s hard rock sound (Scorpions, Yes!) and the pedal was really perfect in it, at least on my set-up (Fender Stratocaster, Marshall 100 watt amp, Marshall “head”). So in the first place I recommend this effects pedal to those who needs this type of sound.

On the other hand, I’m sure if I get on with experiments with distortion settings and other equipment, more new interesting sound would come up. Maybe something like Alice Cooper’s or even industrial or nu-metal. Just keep turning knobs and find your sound.

This is one of the most amazing pedals I ever used and no doubt one of my favourite ones. One of the most notable features is that the pedal has some kind of equializer settings. This does not include particular frequencies ranges settings, but provides you with a handy feature of rough “low-mid-high” fixing.

I generally used it with Peavey Classic combo and this combination gave me a lovely warm sound suitable for blues and hard rock. But surprisingly, when I tried to use another combo (Fender) I found out that the pedal was able to give me a powerful, dense nu-metal sound. The only setting I had to fix was cutting off the mid. I suppose it should also be tested with Mesa Boogie amp equipment. Probably its sound can be far more inpredictable and impressive.

Following the maker’s description (and the pedal’s name itself), it has a tube emulation, which means that you can output it right in the line. It’s quite easy to misjudge this feature, but I used to play through this distortion pedal plugged into PC and I have to say its sound has not nothing to do with that terrible fuzzy high-pitched noise which other distortion pedals generates in the same conditions.

Metal Zone is the most famous and one of the “classic” creations BOSS prouds of. And definitely it is one of the coolest of them. Flexibility is what I love it for. It allows you to form various distortions effect of wide range. Its distortion, drive and really rich equalizer settings open new horizons for your acoustic imagination.

It’s really versatile product, it always will be a good choise, whatever your style might be: heavy metal, grunge, death, progressive or hard-rock. For calm music it gaves you a slight distortion, which can not be reach, for example, by using BOSS Mega Distortion pedal.

I highly recommend this distortion effects pedal for all the guitarists interested in hard and dense sound.

Location: Makuhari Messe, Tokyo
Date: Feb 16, 2008

The show was opened by Lauren Harris who as you might know time to time happens to accompany Iron Maiden as a supporting band. I definitely liked their set and I suppose the majority of others were also pleased a lot. It was a really lovely glam/hard-rock performance with easy-to-listen themes and the pretty nice girl at the vocal. Surprisingly, the guitar sound was rich and sufficient despite the fact that there was the only guitar besides of bass.

Iron Maiden itself was just super. The first song - Aces High - put the crowd into a terrible mess. Everyone were shouting, jumping and pushing each other during that “dance of death”. I believe Iron Maiden are the ones who really never betray their fans’ expectations. Their performances are always full of enthusiasm and have not a hint of insincerity which have some commercialized bands. The members are still full of energy as their were in 80’s.

Bruce Dickinson was climbing up and down all the several levels of stage, demonstrating his perfect physical shape. No need to say it was typical for him to swing British flag on The Trooper and to shout “Scrrrrrrrream for me Tokyo” at those moments he usually do that. Also, during the show he changed the clothes frequently so for almost every song he had a different fanciful appearance.

The concept of scene decorations was based on Ancient Egypt and background themes, as it is easy to guess, represented different reincarnations of Eddie. Following the tradition, a giant Eddie appeared right at the stage during the “Iron Maiden” song, schocking the audience by its awesome size and aiming the huge blaster into the crowd. The way Eddie moves through the stage is still a big mystery for me.

Unfortunately, I am not able to present you the accurate set-list played but for the most part it included Iron Maiden’s “classical” songs, such as those from the albums Seventh Son of the Seventh Son, Iron Maiden, The Number of the Beast and Somewhere In Time.

When the live is over, all of us were completely exhausted but nevertheless totally happy. It was with no doubt a really great event for all the lovers of high-quality heavy metal.

To my great surprise I met Sam Dunn at the Makuhari Messe and he told me he was there to shoot his new documentary which is gonna be about Iron Maiden. So I hope we can see it on DVD soon.

P.S. By the way, what seems to be strange about this world tour is that Iron Maiden is going to visit Bombey, India which looks a bit irrational at the whole tour map. Is there a special reason why they decided to play there?

This work of Swedish band Amaran qualitatively differs from their debut album World Depraved” (2002), mostly in compositional view. Almost every song is based on several musical themes, passing through each other during the song.

The style which Amaran performs suppossably tends to what is called power metal, but it also includes slight elements of progressive and even death metal. Nevertheless, featured by variety of rich melodic solos and magnificent female vocals, it is still easy to listen.

Johanna De Pierre’s way of singing is very emotional and makes a deep impression. By using her strong voice of a great range she performs complex vocal parts, making wide leaps between melodical sequences.

In general, powerful instrumental sound and dramatic vocal s represent a quite felicitous mixture. Lyrical “Coming Home”, impressive “Katharsis”, melodious “24 Pills” are the most remarkable of that unique metal fusion style presented at the album.

Bands: The Haunted/Dark Tranquillity
Location: O-EAST, Tokyo, Japan
Date: Jan 19, 2008

“Double Titans in Japan” was the slogan of the tour which had Tokyo as its closing point. Well, it’s hard to argue, the bands no doubt represent an elite of melodic death metal scene and that night they gave us a brilliant show made of both aggressive atmosphere and dynamic guitar solos.

The Haunted: Their set was arousing. A massy, well-balanced instrumental sound was the first good impression. Powerful bass and deep tom drums were filling the space with low rumble while distorted rhytm and solo guitar completed the sound perfectness. As the first chords struck up, the fans went nuts and the hall began to shake under shattering guitar riffs and crowd jumps.

Peter Dolving’s erratic behaviour at the stage was one of the features of whole performance. His furious and spontaneous movements changed repeatedly into sudden freezing with a fixed stare into the crowd, just to explode with the rage again. As for me, the most notable thing was outstanding live performance of the lead guitarist. The way he carried his technical solos and chunky riffs was really exciting. Anyone who is mad about that mixture of violent rhythm and dynamic solo phrases should be able to understand my delight.

Dark Tranquillity: After the staff had changed the stage with instruments and other musical equipment and a prompt sound-check was completed, at last! the Swedish melodic death metal legend is right in front of us! Their equipment was extended by keyboards which are that cutting edge of Dark Tranquillity’s gloomy atmosphere. Short salutation and here we are, let the insanity begins!

During the show there was an amazing sensation of emotional intensity around. People were yelling, snarling, performing crowd-diving and let emotions out. On “Final Resistance” (”Damage Done”, 2002) we all took up the guitar bridge melody and joined our voices in a ambient and powerful “wooh-wooh-wooh” which was sounding as a roaring stadium during football match. The band members were also extremely active, especially the bass player who all the time kept in touch with the crowd. But who amazed me most of all was their vocalist. It was the first time I visited Dark Tranquillity live and before I actually imagined Mikael Stanne to be a dismal person who are hostile towards everyone and permanently self-absorbed. But how unexpectedly sociable and friendly he was to the audience!

It obviously was a great pleasure for the band to play here, Mikael called Tokyo “the capital of metal music” and expressed admiration for the local listeners. When the live is over he stepped down from the stage right to the first row, so we could salute him in person and shake his hand.