For this installment of Metal Maniacs, Sons of an Eastern Moon guitarist John N. Roach takes us on his own musical journey that led to him becoming the musician and music fan that he is today.
Alrighty, my turn to contribute to this amazing website. Hello! My name is John Roach and I’m a founding member and guitarist for Sons of an Eastern Moon and Animus Volatilis (disbanded). Following Andrew Marsh’s (WinterheartH) lead, I too will refrain from adding local metal to my list, while also not allowing any repeat bands. My music influences span far beyond metal, but I’m sticking to metal for the sake of this list. While I’m borrowing ideas from Andrew, I’m also gonna tack on some honorable mentions at the end. Lets do this.
3 Inches of Blood – Fire Up the Blades
One of, if not THE greatest metal bands to come from the Great White North. 3 Inches of Blood helped me through a lot of angst in high school. I would be walking the halls blasting this album on my walkman or Zune player on a regular basis. It was around this time I had recently picked up the guitar. While others learned “Smoke on the Water” or “Stairway to Heaven”, I was trying to learn “The Goatriders Hoard” and “Black Spire” by ear.
I tend to save the intro tracks for when I have an exam or some test to get me mentally prepped for the challenge ahead. I would end up doing the same for job interviews, and for tests when I attended OIART. Whenever I face adversity, I will fire up the blades.
Amon Amarth – With Oden on Our Side
High school. I was just getting into metal at the time, after being shown DragonForce, Sonata Arctica, Kamelot, Nightwish, etc. I was stuck on the notion that “screaming is not singing” and was strongly against it. That is, until a span of maybe 2-3 months where I was introduced to In Flames, Arch Enemy, and Amon Amarth. The song “Cry of the Blackbirds” was my greeting from this massive album. A friend of mine gave me a burned CD with some select bands on it. No matter how much I would continue to say I was against gutterals… I would come back to this song. It became common for me to have Amon Amarth at the ready for when I’d go for walks in the hall to make me feel stronger and more confident. It’s a big reason why I have the album art tattooed on me now (thanks to Jessica Smith Tattoos).
Blind Guardian – A Twist in the Myth
First job. I had my first taste of disposable income. Whenever I could get the bus or hitch a ride with my parents, I would go to the HMV in the Georgian Mall in Barrie, Ontario and buy random CDs purely based on name recognition or if they had a cool album cover. Absolutely no prior research.
Blind Guardian’s A Twist in the Myth was one of these treasures I brought home. I wore out the CD I played it that much.
The melodies, the soaring vocals of Hansi, the intensity… I was hooked in a way I hadn’t been with a full album before. Masterpiece of an album, and an underrepresented album in Blind Guardian discography discussions. BUY IT!
Sonata Arctica – Ecliptica
Let’s rewind the tape here a little bit. Before Amon Amarth and liking gutterals, I was predominantly a power metal kid. While looking up other bands that sounded like DragonForce, I found Sonata Arctica.
Ecliptica is the debut album from Sonata Arctica, and to this day one of their strongest releases with most of the band’s greatest hits. Jani Liimatainen quickly became one of my favorite guitarists, and I binged every one of his Young Guitar videos. I was ecstatic when my parents got me my first electric guitar for Christmas, partly because it looked like Jani’s. Now, Jani played an expensive Ibanez at the time, but my Costco-bought Yamaha guitar had the exact same red burst that his did. The first metal song I tried to learn was “8th Commandment”… which I still can’t play, but at least I have a cool guitar! Hahah!
Devin Townsend – Ziltoid the Omniscient
Teenager after a heartbreak. What else is there to do but sulk and listen to metal music? At this point I had been exposed to a lot of metal and was downloading music like mad. I’d hear a single song, and then torrent their discography. I didn’t wanna miss anything lol!
I had my bloated collection on random one day, and a song called “Terminal” from the album Ki by Devin Townsend Project came on. I was mindlessly listening up until then… and I was grabbed. I had thought to myself “wow…I need more of this”. Little did I know, this was the tip of the Devin Townsend iceberg and in no way could I have expected to go from the album Ki to something like Ziltoid.
Yeeeeesss. Indeeeeed, Ziltoid the Omniscient is a concept album that explores war, hatred, revenge, genocide, depression, and the worlds best coffee beans. Once I learned that all the music was written by Hevy Devy himself, it added to my intrigue. I’ve been a huge fan of all his works since then, but Ki into Ziltoid was the sonic whiplash that my soul needed at the time to help me grow up and move on.
“They hide their finest bean…PREPARE THE ATTACK!”
Arch Enemy – Doomsday Machine
Surprise, surprise! We’re back in high school again. This time in Mr. Ness’ music class, and we were all assigned to bring in one song for us all to hear an analyze. He stressed that it could be anything, and that he wanted us to share our real music.
I don’t remember what I brought in, it was some DragonForce song I think. This other kid, however, broght “My Apocalypse” by Arch Enemy.
We’re still at the “no screaming” phase for me, so I was turned off immediately. Silently and internally bitching to myself about how bad it was sounding… until the bridge. The ambient chirps and clean guitars, with a super melodic lead. I remember the goosebumps. Fuck, I’m listening to the albums while I write and it still does it to me. I raised my hand right after it ended, and asked the kid who that was again… I was on board now lol. I left that class thinking “wow…this music can be melodic too?”.
Since then, Arch Enemy might have changed, but this album left its mark on me. The first time I preformed metal in front of an audience was a cover of “Nemesis” with my old band Animus Volatilis at a school assembly…. 13-14 years ago. Holy fuck.
In Flames – The Jester Race / Black-Ash Inheritance
Alrighty, so we’re in that 2-3 month metal transition time… thing. I’m on the verge of liking heavier vocals in my music. Arch Enemy and Amon Amarth are starting to sway my my opinions. In Flames swung me the rest of the way.
Songs like “The Quiet Place”, “Cloud Connected”, and “My Sweet Shadow” were what initially started it all… but then I did some digging. I found out about the monolithic melodic powerhouse that In Flames really was, with Whoracle and The Jester Race. It’s almost ethereal how these Swedes juxtapose beauty with brutality. The songwriting, the riffs, the lyrics, all accumulate into one happy metalhead.
As a diehard fan, it was difficult to narrow down one single album, but The Jester Race altogether encapsulates the band in my eyes. It’s the album I spent the most time with trying to learn guitar.
In Flames We Trust.
Dark Tranquility – Fiction
These next 3 albums are invaluable for my music identity, but there’s no bombastic high school sob stories or significant tales of random finds. On my quest to find more melodic death metal, I heard some friends talk about “The Three Gothenburg Kings” of Swedish Metal. I had already started my fandom with In Flames… why not the other two?
Fiction was where I began with Dark Tranquility. It was a similar flavor to what I had heard before, but with a difference in orchestration and instrumentation. We have clean vocals mixed in, we have more emphasis on synths and keys, and we have a more earthy scream from Mikael Staane. Hooked. Instantly hooked. NEXT!
At the Gates – Slaughter of the Soul
Continuing onto the thrid king… whoa. I was not prepared for this immaculate pillar of the melodic death metal legacy. Everything that needs to be said about this album has been in past interviews, reviews, documentaries, etc.
There is no way I could not include At the Gates’ magnum opus. NEXT!
Insomnium – Above the Weeping World
I grew up associating melodic death with Sweden, and power/folk with Finland… that was until I stumbled upon Insomnium. MDM like I hadn’t heard it before. More “modern” in the guitar tones and production. Beginning this album with rain and piano sets the mood for what Insomnium means, and its a unique sonic footprint that has inspired me and my songwriting. Instead of the cold, harsh, and crisp nature of early 90’s MDM, this was warm, full bodied, and still brutal.
Welp, that’s my list… and potentially too much info. I hope you enjoyed my hike down memory lane, and I appreciate being aloud to add my two cents to this album article run 🙂
Here are my honorable mentions, as promised!
Twelve Foot Ninja – Silent Machine
Kamelot – The Black Halo
Angra – Shadow Hunter
Noumena – Anatomy of Life
Kalmah – Seventh Swamphony
Soen – Lotus
Unleash the Archers – Abyss
Omnium Gatherum – Grey Havens
Equilibrium – Sagas
DragonForce – Sonic Firestorm
~ Written by John N. Roach
~ Edited by Akhenaten
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