a review of some metal band from Cyprus

The tectonic plates pushed Cyprus up from the eastern Mediterranean Sea amid some incredibly pivotal pieces of land. The island-country has seen kings, conquerors, and empires. So I appreciate that, amid all this history, Whispers of Lore includes "Arrow," a song about a lesser-known figure from the past—the defiant Nikolaos Pappas.

Greece was ruled by a right-wing military dictatorship, the Greek junta, from 1967 to 1974. In 1973, Pappas, a Greek naval commander, publicly defied the junta by refusing to return to Greece with his Fletcher-class destroyer Velos (or Arrow) after a NATO exercise. Lyrics from "Arrow"—"In a sea of corruption, we’re sailing the Arrow / Though the path now seems narrow, we won’t stop the fight / And against the oppressive dictatoring sorrow / For a better tomorrow, we'll stand for our rights."

Pappas fled in the destroyer to Italy, where he claimed political asylum and denounced the junta at a press conference. After the junta fell in 1974, Pappas was reinstated and resumed his meritorious career.

Whispers of Lore defies cynicism, and Receiver would relegate no act of courage to a footnote.

The album is an enthusiastic foray into the current revival of new wave British heavy metal. The band sounds tight and balances its polish with great energy. Lots of bands now are honoring the epic storytelling sound of Iron Maiden. Besides Maiden, Receiver cites as influences Dio, Riot, Savatage, Omen, and Saracen.

The Cyprus-based band plays proficiently and with sincerity. The songs on Whispers of Lore tell of adventure. But the key to this genre is the vocal—does the singer have the juice?

Singer Nicoletta can belt out the drama. Listen to “Trespasser”: “The modern warlords waging war / peace stands afar out of reach / Witness machinery at roar / The corporate amused and rich / Destroying their hope and lives rearranged / Trespasser storming the gates / Reaching your goals, in madness and in vain / Your sin will not become our fate.” Nicoletta’s committed delivery is reinforced by crunchy, punchy guitars that pace ahead with defiant, simple riffs along with rolls of double-bass.

Gates of Hell Records released Whispers of Lore on November 10.

something about "Believer: My Forty Years in Politics" by David Axelrod

David Axelrod emerged on the national political scene as Barack Obama's invaluable strategist during the 2008 campaign. After the campaign, Axelrod stayed on as Obama's senior advisor for half of the first term. He returned to the campaign trail for Obama in 2012. While these events, covered in Axelrod's memoir, Believer, are momentous, I enjoyed the beginning of Axelrod's story most of all.

When he was a child, the future strategist, born in New York City, witnessed a John F. Kennedy campaign speech. Axelrod cites that moment as a formative experience. He had caught and internalized the political optimism of the day. He recalls the experience with undiminished sincerity.

I also enjoyed his brief recount of Chicago's modern political history. This memoir also offers a little of the guilty pleasure of gossipy criticism, such as when Axelrod criticizes Elizabeth Edwards for micromanaging the 2004 presidential campaign of her husband, John.

Axelrod went to college in Chicago, then started as a journalist investigating Chicago politics and corruption. He had his own column in a city paper by age 18. Axelrod was friends with Obama long before they campaigned together, both having built careers out of Chicago politics.
 
Axelrod keeps the narrative moving. He could have written a whole book on just the first week in the White House, with the whole country groaning under the weight of the the financial crisis. But Axelrod gives those monumental days only the standard highlight reel. His writing is crisp, clever, and often funny. His forty-year career goes by too fast at times. He is an underrated and undervalued figure in our national politics. His enduring belief in the promise of America is precious.

The Sun Also Rises

Robert Jordan aims to destroy a bridge nested in the hills of Spain. He's fighting fascists in the Spanish Civil War, and for this mission he has embedded himself within a group of cave squatting peasants who casually identify as Communist Republican guerrillas. Jordan's new local comrades are a motley bunch that includes a modestly perfect old man, a couple gypsies, a once-ruthless but now shelled guerrilla hero, their hard boiled matron, and a victimized young beauty Robert takes for a lover. All of them are on his mission now, and to varying degrees each of them knows it will bring death.

Hemingway's protagonist fights the fascists but much of the action in For Whom the Bell Tolls unfolds in Robert's thoughts. It is there a quiet battle burns between cynicism and idealism, drafting in its duration his politics, his humanity, values, lineage, and his identity. The conclusion is appropriately unresolved, situated somewhere between an existentialist's consignment and a young boy's pretending.

Hemingway's pacing can put the reader to work, but this work brings satisfaction when it's done.