some sort of rescue toaster...

Don't buy Death Magnetic yet.

2008-09-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

Fucking Metallica...

My favorite band is doing just about everything they can to make me stop liking them.

The production on Death Magnetic is shit. I think I really like the songs, but the mix is terrible. And interestingly enough, the mix that Metallica sent to Guitar Hero 3 does not sound like shit, and its beginning to cause an uproar.

Read about it here, and here, and see evidence of the shitastic clipping here.

So hold out on buying the album, maybe they'll remaster it so that it doesn't sound like poop. Torrents are starting to appear with audio rips from the Guitar Hero 3 versions, so just go download those until Metallica figures out how much they screwed up this album.

UPDATE: I just downloaded the Guitar Hero 3 audio rip, and holy hell is it better. It's not perfect, the guitars are a bit weak in the mix, but there's no distortion. I think I'm noticing more intricacies to the songs as well. Hopefully it won't be too long until someone starts creating mixes with these tracks.

Compare CD vs. GH3!

Mirrorthrone - Gangrene

2008-06-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

Mirrorthrone is the product of a Swiss guy Vladimir who handles all the vocals, guitars, keyboards, and drum programming. The drum is very obviously a drum machine. Mirrorthrone is Vladimir's symphonic epic black metal project. I had actually heard of Mirrorthrone while researching what I thought was his extreme and raw black metal Eikenskaden, though digging around now, it seems as though Eikenskaden was done by a different guy... I already have the debut Of Wind And Weeping. I haven't really followed this band at all, and it looks like I missed the second album. Gangrene is the third and latest from this band. (I'm going to refer to it as a band, instead of writing out Vladimir's symphonic project.)

First of all, this album is definitely epic. The 6 tracks clock in at over an hour, with the longest being 15 minutes. However, the usual song structure isn't really here, the songs rarely reuse riffs and instead change and evolve throughout the duration. I think the highlight of this band is the vocals. Vladimir has a wide range of styles that he puts to good use in this band. Most of the songs break between his raw black metal voice and his clean chants. There's a vocal section on the debut album that I would just listen to over and over. There are not many bands where it is the vocals that actually attract me to the band, but this is one of them.

The drums are a weak point on the album. He really should get a real drummer, the drum machine just sounds thin and weak much of the time.

7/10

This Ending - Inside The Machine

2008-05-20T21:06:00.001-07:00

This Ending is the reincarnation of a somewhat old school band called A Canorous Quintet. Old school for me at least. They were one of the first swedish melodic death metal bands I heard when I was just getting into this stuff in 97ish, back when swedish melodic death still had balls. Their 1998 release The Only Pure Hate is still one of my favorite albums. The singer also did the vocals for the absolutely incredible side project, October Tide, with Jonas Renske of Katatonia. Bless Pandora radio for re-introducing me to these guys cause I doubt I would have discovered them on my own.

Musically, this is very much in line with what The Only Pure Hate was back in 1998. The production is better of course, but the riffs, drums, and overall sound has the same feel as ACQ. In fact, its a very similar sound to much of the mid to late 90s swedish metal that has recently fallen off the radar. Maybe that's why I'm enjoying it so much. It reminds me of why I fell in love with this style of music 10 years ago.

Unfortunately if you clicked on the above link to their homepage you'll notice that their image has definitely changed. They look like a shitty Engel-like band. Oh well, at least they still sound good.

8/10

This makes me want to look into whatever happened to another one of my favorite melodic death bands, Autumn Leaves, whose album As Night Conquers Day was also one of my first, and still a favorite, melodic metal album. Well holy crap, a guitarist from Autumn Leaves is now doing The Arcane Order... Going to have to check them out.

Isole - Bliss Of Solitude

2008-05-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

I usually multitask while listening to the music for these reviews, which is one reason why they are often brief or just terrible (not that this review won't be terrible as well). However, I put everything aside and gave this album my full attention. I didn't really intend to do that, the album just forced my attention to it. I'm not sure how to categorize Isole, although perhaps doom comes closest to what is heard. The band reminds me a bit of Daylight Dies or Novembers Doom.

Well, whatever one wants to call this band, Bliss Of Solitude is an incredibly fascinating piece of metal. The guitars are super thick, and even the acoustic guitars have a huge sound. Most of the main riffs of the song are slower tempo drudges of doom, but there is a lot of intricacies going on that keeps the listener alert. The singer does all clean vocals, and has a slight haunted effect to his voice, which adds a ton of atmosphere to the album. The third track had about 10 seconds of a female voice. She only seemed to sing a line or two, and that was the only time she appeared on the album, which seems a bit strange. Maybe they couldn't afford to pay her for more...

The 7 tracks clock in at a lengthy seven minutes, and the only weakness might be that it drones on a tad too long here and there. I enjoyed all the tracks, and could not constructively advise as to what to cut out though. The first two tracks "By Blood" and "From Clouded Sky" were my favorite. Good stuff is all over this album.

8/10

Sworn Enemy - Maniacal

2008-04-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

I don't know much about Sworn Enemy, I've always just assumed they were a terrible hardcore band, and though this newest release, Maniacal, isn't terrible, it's not very exciting. From this record it sounds like these guys could be capable of writing something good. I don't know whether they intend to inject the dull and repetitive hardcore influenced riffs into the songs or its just a result of them running out of ideas of where their songs should head.

There is some good riffing here, as well as some aggressive fast paced tunes that get your head going. The guitar solos prove that the guitarists are capable of shredding. At their best, they sound kind of like the Swedish Nightrage. I just can't deal with the hardcore elements that surface throughout the album.

4/10

Zimmers Hole - When You Were Shouting At The Devil...

2008-04-21T18:23:00.000-07:00

...We were in league with Satan! Zimmers Hole is pretty much just Strapping Young Lad without Devin Townsend, with every song having the heavy, yet humorous, vibe of SYL's "Far Beyond Metal." With Gene, Jed, and Byron contributing all the instruments, and Devin producing, there's a definite Strapping feel to this album. However, the music lies more in traditional thrash than the chaotic mess that can be SYL. Chris Valagao 'The Heathen' does the vocals, recreating his best Rob Halford pipes to give us the Zimmers Hole message of metal.

This album is a blast. It's not to be taken seriously, but its a damn fine work of metal. Hell, the names alone associated with this should make you go out and buy it immediately. The riffs are fast, heavy, and catchy. The drums are relentless. And the vocals expertly flow between Rob Halford and Oderus Urungus.

There's even a guest spot by Nathan Explosion of Dethklok on the track "The Vowel Song" which helps you how to read... Brutal

9/10

Death Angel - Killing Season

2008-04-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

I wish I could say that I was a huge Death Angel fan back in the day, but I was only 11 in 1990, and I didn't really listen to music at that age. I was probably 16 or 17 before I got introduced to Master of Puppets, and even then, it wasn't until I went off to college that I discovered the metal underground. And since Death Angel hadn't released anything since 92ish, I had never heard them. So my first Death Angel experience was 2004's The Art Of Killing, which I enjoyed thoroughly, though I haven't gone back in time to their early releases.

Anyway, as far as thrash metal goes released these days, this album tops the lists. Of course, I'm not even sure I really know many thrash bands these days besides these guys, Anthrax, and Exodus. Maybe its only the old school guys that are capable of still thrashing well. The young Black Tide sure aren't very exciting.

Like all thrash released these days, there's nothing original here, its just how well the band is capable of thrashing. The songs here are catchy and will soon have you headbanging; riffs galore and good solos. The singer sounds kind of like Joey Belladonna so the vocals are certainly spot on.

8/10

Hate Eternal - Fury And Flames

2008-04-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm a double bass drum, let me pound in your face for 40 minutes. I haven't really heard anything from Hate Eternal for awhile, I know that I didn't really like their debut, though I may have to go and relisten to it after this newest brutal offering of death metal from Erik Rutan. I never really followed this band, so I can't really say much about their other albums. Though somehow I remember the name of the main guy from this band and that he spells it with a 'k' instead of a 'c.' wtf.

This thing is intense though. The bass drum is way up in the mix, and it's pretty much just double bass drum throughout the entire album. The guitars aren't very audible except when a solo pops out. Only Erik's vocals equal the intensity of the double bass drum. If Hate Eternal's equipment van broke down, they could pull off the songs live by only bringing a microphone and a double bass pedal with triggers.

I'm being a bit overly critical, because this is a good album. If you are a fan of the death metal, than check this out.

7/10

Soil - Scars

2008-04-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

Leave it to WoW to get me to listen to an album that I was almost sure I would not like. The first two tracks from this album: "Breaking Me Down" and "Halo" are probably two of the most popular songs for people to use in their warcraft movies. Fortunately, for this nu-metal-ish rock band, these two tracks are actually really good. It's the rare occasion when a band can put together an enjoyable tune to your ears, despite coming from a genre you absolutely hate. There's good beats, heavy riffs, and catchy choruses. Unfortunately the rest of the album just absolutely blows. I was kind of excepting this, but I figured I'd give it a shot. There's just nothing original or interesting after the two really good opening tracks. Its just radio-friendly rock crap between the likes of Creed and Korn.

3/10

Therion - Crowning Of Atlantis

2008-04-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

I've recently started getting into Therion thanks again to Pandora Radio. I'm not really sure how to describe these guys. It's often very theatrical with grandiose male and female vocals, as if they hired two opera singers, but then just have catchy rock guitar riffs underneath. It's not extremely heavy, at least this album is not; I don't really know about their other stuff yet. Though the few tracks I've heard from other albums on Pandora have been in a similar style as Crowning of Atlantis.

As mentioned before, this is more like heavy rock with opera-ish vocals. The vocals fit though, its never over the top or anything. The music is very melodic with some great guitar lines and some piano melodies throughout. The song "Crazy Nights" seems somewhat out of place on this album, with its more 80s vibe going on. The song is stuck between to more typical songs entitled "Calivula Nox" and "From The Dionysian Days."

8/10

Poisonblack - Escapexstacy

2008-04-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

Here's the catchy 2003 debut album by Poisonblack, the goth metal band featuring the singer, Ville Laihiala, of the great, but now disbanded, Sentenced. Sentenced had always leaned a bit towards the goth metal side of things, but Poisonblack is full out goth metal with many of the annoying tendencies of that genre such as a crooning depressed sounding singer and lots of keyboards. Fortunately, and probably thanks to the songwriting skill of Ville, this all comes together to create some good songs. The guitar riffs are similar to what is heard on Sentenced albums, and this could easily have been a Sentenced album with a little tweaking. Songs such as "Love infernal," "All Else Is Hollow," and "Exciter" will stick in your head and you'll be regrettably singing them in your head after hearing this album.

8/10

Paradise Lost - In Requiem

2008-04-13T11:38:00.001-07:00

Here's another one of those bands thats been around forever that I've never really listened to. I vaguely remember enjoying them when I saw them live many years ago when they opened for Opeth. Although I also remember that the audience did not like them, for the most part. I'm sure there's some rich history about Paradise Lost and how they've evolved throughout the years, but I don't know it.

In Requiem is a very typical goth metal release. Paradise Lost has an incredibly good singer though, whereas many goth metal bands have annoying male vocals that drone continually. I'm listening to this for the first time as I write this, as I do most of these reviews, and I haven't decided whether or not I like it. As I said, I really like the vocals, and there's some really good riffs and melodies, but none of the songs are really jumping out as a "must listen to again" song. I suppose I like the album, but will I ever listen to it again? Probably not. However, I may look into tasting some more Paradise Lost in the future.

6/10

Månegarm - Urminnes Hävd - The Forest Sessions

2008-04-12T15:15:00.000-07:00

This short 2006 release is a big departure from Månegarm's typical black folk metal assault. The Forest Sessions is all clean singing, male and female vocals, and all acoustic guitars. There is also violin and other instruments used throughout. There is some really good ballads on here, with some memorable guitar lines and melodies. The album is short and to the point at only 27 minutes long. I'm not sure I could listen to much more than 30 minutes of these types of songs without being bored anyway. This is something to enjoy if one really likes those acoustic folk ballads that many folk metal bands will intersperse on their more metal albums.

7/10

Martriden - The Unsettling Dark

2008-04-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

Martriden pounded right onto the metal scene with their absolutely ripping 4 song EP and a tour with Emperor. If you haven't heard these guys yet, go to their myspace page now and listen cause these guys are one of the best new melodic death metal bands. These Montana guys now bless us with their first full length - The Unsettling Dark

This band reminds me much of Arsis. Like Arsis, there's nothing really that original going on with the style, its just done very, very, very well. The style and production is very similar to Arsis. The guitars are razor sharp, the drums have a very thick and full sound, and the pace is blistering. These guys might be a bit more melodic, in that they break down with some pretty melodies occasionally, but don't worry, there's nothing radio friendly about this.

The one negative of this album is that I think my favorite Martriden songs are two from the EP still. Nothing quite tops the tracks "Blank Eye Stare" and "In Death We Burn" from the EP, although many of the songs come close. "Prelude" from this release is absolutely BRUTAL. I was a bit apprehensive when I saw that song title, because I was afraid it would be a slow instrumental intro to the following track, and I hate it when bands do that when there already is an intro to the album. Martriden did not let me down though.

10/10 Fucking metal \m/

Cales - Uncommon Excursion

2008-04-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

Well, Cales is certainly an obscure band, even by metal standards. I have the 2001 release The Pass In Time, which was a very strong folk/celtic metal album. These guys were one of my first experiences of the folk metal genre, and I absolutely loved it. Listening to that album now I realize its not the best of the folk metal genre, though its still a good album.

Uncommon Excursion departs from the Celt metal themes and becomes a more straightforward rock album. Its not a huge change from The Pass In Time, as these guys definitely have their own unique sound. The guitars and acoustic guitars create some good songs and ballads that I'm thoroughly enjoying as I listen. The singer only uses his clean voice on this, not that he did a lot of death vocals on The Pass In Time. This is both good and bad - Good, because his clean voice is improved since The Pass In Time; bad, because I liked his death vocals.

I don't think there's a bad song on this album. I'm always a bit leery of albums that are over 60 minutes, but I'm very satisfied with the music. It's good that these guys didn't force another Celtic metal album if this is what they were wanting to write at the time. However, they are much better at designing Celtic inspired album covers than rock images. This one has a very lame picture of an astronaut with a flame thrower...

8/10 Listen to this, just don't look at it.

Anubis - Heroine

2008-04-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

I originally checked out this album because of another band, called Anubis Rising, a killer band from LA, that never really seemed to take off though. They just released a bunch of demos and such. Unfortunately, Anubis is very different than Anubis Rising. Whereas Anubis Rising was good, Anubis is bad...

OK fine, I'll be more thorough than that. Anubis Rising played some more blackened Opeth inspired music, long opuses with lots of changes, but with a raspy black metal sound to it all. Anubis is goth metal, very keys-laden and annoying male vocals goth metal. And this album is 67 minutes... There's no way I'm going to make it through this whole thing.

The female's voice in Anubis is actually not too bad, nothing awe-inspiring, but decent. However, there's nothing exciting at all about the music underneath her voice. There's some very uninspiring keys and electronic noise laying around on this, and the guitars and drums certainly never jump out from the mix. And to top it all off, the male singer is probably about the most bland singer I've heard in a long, long time. I've never heard anything recent about this band, this album was released in 2001, so I doubt they are still around. And yes, I am too lazy right now to actually check that statement, because I don't really care.

I think I'll go listen to all this stuff on Anubis Rising's myspace page.

3/10 If we got rid of the male vocals, it might score a 5.

IWRESTLEDABEARONCE

2008-04-02T20:08:00.000-07:00

I don't know why this song is so damn entertaining. I usually hate this type of stuff. The song is called "Tastes Like Kevin Bacon." The other songs on their myspace page are also great. Looking forward to a full release by these guys (and girl!). I love the band name, though it sounds like something random spewed on a WoW forum.

Vader - Impressions In Blood

2008-04-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

Dammit Vader rocks!!! Three exclamation marks because every other Vader song seems to end in three exclamation marks. At least they are excited about their songs, although I wonder how the band discussions go when deciding what songs get the three exclamation marks.

Peter: Ok, "They Live" gets exclamation marks.

Mauser: Why that one? I wanted "Field Of Heads" to get the marks.

Peter: No one is going to say "Field of Heads" with such exuberance. If you came across a field of severed heads, you would state as a matter of fact, "Look at this field of heads." You won't say "Look Peter, I found this FIELD OF HEADS!!!" Whereas someone seeing zombies rise from the ground will yell "They Live!!!" cause those zombies are going to fucking eat your brains.

Mauser: Yeah, well "Fuck You!!!"

Peter: See, now that would work, I'll keep that in mind for our next album.

Daray: What about "The Book?"

Peter: ... where's my stabbing knife?

Again, my Vader knowledge is very limited, I still have only heard the EP Art of War and Litany, so give me a bit of break when I can't compare this to their other material. This is the 2006 release by this band, and it is very similar in sound to Litany. That's not a bad thing however, although maybe I wouldn't be saying that if I knew of their entire catalog. But this seems like a band that I'll like every album they put out, even if it sounds exactly like the rest, kind of like Amon Amarth. Amon Amarth releases the same album year after year, but I buy it every single time cause it rocks. It's good to have those bands that you can rely on to release a solid metal album. We already have enough bands stating: "We needed to explore, although this piece of shit we released is still focused in our roots, we just branched out and tried some new things."

8/10 Vader!!!

Black Cobra - Feather And Stone

2008-04-02T19:12:00.000-07:00

Is there a label yet for the type of metal that Mastodon, High On Fire, and the like have perfected. Maybe there is and I'm just out of the loop. I've seen sludge metal tossed around, but I would think that would apply more to the Neurosis, Isis, and Pelican style. Anyway, Black Cobra have released a short but sweet record of their own take on this style, perhaps mixing the sounds of face-pounding band such as High On Fire with the slower intricacies of Isis. The result is a face-pounding that takes a breather to highlight some beautiful patterns of blood pooling at your feet.

The guitar work on this album remind me of somewhere between The Sword on the heavier sections and Isis on the softer clean sections. The vocals sound like the singer is trying to scream loud enough to be heard through the wall of sound, as they seem to come from the background.

The only downfall of this album is its length, maybe this is supposed to be just a short EP, but I would have liked to hear some of the songs fleshed out more, or just more of them. There are many intricacies on the album that aren't allowed to explore to their full potential. Although maybe the band doesn't want the music to wander too much such as Isis or Pelican.

8/10 Black Cobra has a very promising future.

Lair Of The Minotaur - War Metal Battle Master

2008-03-31T20:24:00.000-07:00

OK, before you start laughing at how ridiculous the name of this band, and their newest release because it sounds like some tabletop wargame, watch this video. ***Warning*** contains blood, tits, and metal.

War Metal Battle Master

So now that you've watched what just may be the greatest metal video over, and one which other metal videos should be measured against, I shouldn't really have to say a whole lot to convince you that this album slays. It's got a huge thick, yet thrashy, sound to it that pounds you in the face with its hammer of metal, and doesn't let up until the naked vampire chicks come to feast on your bloody flesh.

9/10 One big, angry, and loud minotaur.

Witchery - Don't Fear The Reaper

2008-03-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why Witchery isn't more popular, because they play some very catchy, polished, and aggressive melodic death metal. Its not the more modern 'trying to be radio-friendly' melodeath with clean vocals or anything, the songs are just based around my favorite element of metal: killer guitar riffs. And believe me, the riffs on this 2006 album are heavy, memorable, bountiful, and perhaps a bit bluesy at times. The vocals aren't anything special, just a standard swedish guy with a coarse voice, and he keeps a consistent style throughout the album, which may be a drawback if you are a big fan of varied vocals on your metal albums. Most of the songs aren't incredibly fast, so if you need music that's paced at a jillion beats per minute, this won't be for you.

There's not much more to say. This is typical swedish melodic death metal, just done very well. Witchery creates some damn good songs that will bring you back to this album many times.

8/10 Enjoyable-ry

Týr - Ragnarok

2008-03-20T20:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so you get 1 guess as to what genre of metal this falls under. With song titles such as "The Hammer of Thor," "The Ride To Hel," and Grimur a Midalnesi," I kind of knew what to expect going into this. I don't know how long these guys have been going at it, this is my first listen to anything by Tyr. (I'm not making that accent every time I type their name.) If you take a browse on their website, you'll find out that this band is the ONLY Faroese folk metal band. I didn't even know of the existence of these Faroe Island, but then again, I'm a dumb American.

Anyway, on to the music...

The acoustic song that opens this album, aptly titled "The Beginning" is a great catchy track that gave me great hopes for what I was about to hear. Unfortunately, the album is rather hit and miss. A couple of the tracks are pagan-riffic, such as "Brother's Bane" and "Torsteins Kvaedi" The rest of it is all very plain. The singer, who does all clean vocals on this album, definitely has talent and the tracks I enjoyed he sang some memorable lines, even if I couldn't understand the language. Many of the main tracks on this are just boring riff and sing-a-long affairs that never reach any sort of climactic peak. The songs are just there, if that makes any sense.

One of the big downfalls of this album is that practically every other song is a minute-long instrumental, or more annoying folkish noise, interlude which really slows down the album. Its not incredibly fast to begin with, but after the 4th or 5th such break, these interludes quickly get old. And with the album clocking in at an hour and seven minutes, some stuff needs to be trimmed. The interludes need to go, and many of the songs need to be shortened. All the actual songs on this album are 5-6 minutes, which isn't necessarily a lengthy song, but a song must keep the listener interested for the entire length.

The best part of this album was reading up on the Faroe Islands. It's a province of Denmark between its fatherland and Iceland. Looks like it would be an interesting place to visit.

4/10 I think this came off of the bottom of Thor's boot.

Morrigan - The Damned

2008-03-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

I'm guessing that the annoying women talking and screaming in some foreign language at the beginning of the second track is supposed to be some witches burning. It goes on for about a minute, is really annoying, and doesn't really fit well with rest of the album. Its like a big unnecessary stop sign on this dirty, raspy, black metal highway. The first song had me interested, its actually rather enjoyable for this kind of black metal, but that opening to the second song annoyed me. This is certainly nothing original or new for black metal, but they manage to make it interesting enough to keep me listening. They bring out a few celtic folk touches here and there that add some additional flavor. The riffs are cool, and the vocalist sounds like he's dying, in a good way... He's using a bunch of effects on his voice, but it fits the music. I like these really dirty black metal vocals, although no one does it as well as Anaal Nathrakh.

...I need to stop saying something kind of negative and then finishing up the sentence with a "but..." statement. I seem to do that quite often in my reviews. I'll see if I can start doing without those statements.

7/10 I'm enjoying this album, although I don't know how often I'll come back to it.

Misery Index - Discordia

2008-03-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

At first I thought I liked this album, I heard many songs off of Pandora, but now that I'm listening to the full album, its not doing anything for me. I can't really identify what it is I don't like about it. The guitars are good, drums are heavy, and the singer's got a good death voice. I suppose its just that this isn't anything original. Although I'm not sure how I can say that, since I eat up every Swedish melodic death band with a spoon. Maybe its because I just got into Vader, there's no reason I would ever put Discordia in instead of my also recently acquired Litany. It's a similar style, but Vader is infinitely superior at it. The title track on this album is really good, but other than that...

4/10 Not terrible, but nothing exciting.

Agalloch - The White EP

2008-03-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

This latest release by Agalloch was limited to 2000 copies and quickly sold out during the preorder so it may be next to impossible to find, which is a shame, because it is incredibly good. Agalloch has a very distinct sound that they've stuck without becoming stale. Apparently this album is a compliment to The Grey EP, also out through Vendlus records. White is an appropriate name for this EP, as the music is lighter (as much as Agalloch can be) than their other work. The tracks "Isle of Summer," "Pantheist," and "Birch White" all have very uplifting tones, which is a nice compliment to their usual dreary band. "Sowilo Rune" has a very similar sound from 2002's The Mantle.

I'm actually at a loss of what else to say about this, because I love this band so much, anything I write would feel incredibly biased. This really leaves me wanting to hear a new full length. It would be very interesting to hear more piano in their future works as it works well the few times it was used on The White. Agalloch is sitting high atop the field of folk metal bands.

9/10 Only because now I want something more from one of my favorite bands.

Kampfar - Kvass

2008-03-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

Yay, more viking metal. There has become quite a bit of these bands as this style of metal has become more and more popular. This is the most recent album from Kampfar Oh wait, checking the website, this is "Norse Pagan Folklore Metal." Ok, whatever, its viking metal.

The most notable thing about this album is the vocals. The vocalist has a raspy, black metal voice and he 'sings' almost continually throughout the length of the album. There's not much instrumental time on the songs, which is a shame, because Kampfar has some very nice melodies that come out occasionally, it would be nice if they were the focus instead of the constant attention the vocals get. It wouldn't be so bad if the vocalist were more interesting to listen to.

Kvass isn't bad, there's some really good songs taken one at a time. However the vocalist doesn't have much variety in his voice, which causes the songs to become a bit repetitive and boring by the time you reach the end of the album.

7/10 Good viking metal with a not so good singer

Endstille - Endstilles Reich

2008-03-10T17:39:00.000-07:00

I'm guessing that Endstille is German, although you'd think they'd choose a more German looking gun for their silly image that greets visitors to their homepage. If you look around their webpage, you'll probably quickly assume that they are a black metal band. And well, you'd be correct.

The production on this record is top notch. The guitars are razor sharp and the drums come in clearly. Music-wise, this is definitely black metal. Fast riff after fast riff, I don't think this album slows down once during its relentless attack on whatever moral principle Endstille has a thing against. This is better than your average run of the mill black metal band, but it's still very limited by the black metal sound and begins getting very repetitive by the end of the disc.

6/10 Better than average black metal.

Ajattara - Kalmanto

2008-03-10T16:53:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest black folk opus from Ajattara. And well, there's not much to review, its still the same album they've already released 3 times already. I do notice a slight increase in synth effects and the pace is a bit slower. Its not enough to dramatically make any real change to the style of black metal that these guys do, but I am noticing, so I guess that's something. The album is still heavy and evil, just like their others.

7/10 Didn't I already review this a couple days ago?

Dark Age - Minus Exitus

2008-03-09T20:46:00.000-07:00

There needs to be a law enacted that forbids new bands from using the word 'Dark' in their name. I swear I have like 10 different Dark something bands in my cd collection. In addition, certain song titles need to be banned, such as: Burning Bridges, Downfall, Beginning of the End, and Darkness Falls (or any combination of darkness and falling...) What's next? Dark Light? Oh wait, thanks H.I.M. Please go die now. How about Dark Misery or Dark Darkness for your next album title?

So now that I got that off my chest, Dark Age is actually a decent melodic death metal band. Or maybe its just I like melodic death metal a lot, so I like pretty much all this stuff. Can we say biased? Believe it or not, these guys aren't even Swedish, they're German! There's not really much to say about this, melodic death metal states clearly what a band will sound like these days. Specifically though, these guys remind me a bit of some other lesser known melodic death bands such as The Duskfall, with some clean singing similar to Before The Dawn, and some other band that I can't think of right now.

7/10 I really need to ween myself off this genre and realize that 100 bands are doing the exact same thing...

Disarmonia Mundi - Nebularium

2008-03-09T19:57:00.001-07:00

Here's the 2002 debut from Soilwork. No wait, my bad, this is Disarmonia Mundi. I shouldn't say that as if it was a bad thing, because these guys are definitely releasing some quality metal. I always thought that their second album, Fragments of D-Generation, was their debut though (I didn't really research into the band much). I'm sure most people didn't know this band existed until they got Bjorn Strid of Soilwork to contribute vocals on Fragments. After hearing Fragments I thought to myself "This is what Soilwork should be sounding like." My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I think the mostly disappointing Figure Number Five came out around the same time as Fragments. And now with both of Soilwork's original guitarists out, Soilwork is probably done. At least we'll get to continue to hear Strid's voice in Disarmonia Mundi.

Ok, on to this record. Melodic death metal from Italia! It's obvious what bands these guys are influenced by, but they do a good job with their own form. The production on this isn't quite up to par as their more recent albums, and obviously Bjorn's killer voice isn't on it, but the other guys are more than adequate vocalists. The album is slightly slower paced than Fragments or Mind Tricks, but everything on it is evident that its the same guys writing the stuff, despite the numerous band member problems this band has endured.

This album, and this band, is certainly capable without the presence of Bjorn Strid on vocals. Its a shame that Strid had to enter the picture for this band to get some well deserved recognition.

7/10 Good debut album from Soilwork 2.

Daysend - The Warning

2008-03-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

Daysend, pronounced 'days end' and not 'day send' how I always incorrectly refer to this Australian band, finally gives us a follow up to Severance. I've been worried about this new album from these Aussies because of the vocalist change since the absolutely amazing Severence. The vocalist on Severance really helped define that album and made it such an enjoying listen. He was your mostly typical harsh vocalist with a very good clean voice, but it was just done to absolute perfection on Severance that I just didn't think that a replacement could ever fill his shoes.

However I shouldn't forget that behind the really strong vocals of Severance was some very good instruments by the other members of Daysend. The guitar riffs created some great pieces for the vocalist to sing over and this mostly continues on The Warning. Even though the vocalist isn't nearly as strong as the former guy, the guitars elevate this band above others in the metalcore genre. Even though there's no super catchy chorus such as those found on Severance, the songs are good. The album does improve in the 'avoiding hardcore elements' division. Severance did occasionally skirt the hardcore breakdown hole that often plagues metalcore and that makes me instantly push stop on a cd. The Warning does a good job in avoiding these breakdown regressions.

7/10 Not as good as their debut, but a good album in the sea of terrible metalcore.

Carpathian Forest - Fuck You All

2008-03-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

I sometimes wonder how serious some of these black metal bands take themselves. Their website url, which lacks much information, stands for "True Norwegian Black Metal." Well if that means generic sounding black metal, then I guess that label is correct. I vaguely remember liking their previous effort, Defending The Throne Of Evil, which is why I decided to check out this latest release. Although I may have to go back and listen to that album again, I remember it being somewhat laid back and even a bit humourous. It was just a fun listen, for a black metal, album that didn't really take itself to seriously and just played some catchy black metal tunes. I'll have to listen to it again and see if I get the same impression.

That being said, this album isn't giving a similar impression. Even though the album title and some song names are much sillier, the album seems too serious and submits to the mostly bland true black metal formula. The singer does stray a bit from the standard black metal voice with some background yelling, but it doesn't really add anything, and comes out sounding a bit ridiculous.

4/10 Blah, black metal.

Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

2008-03-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

Blind Guardian has a lot of really good albums, they are probably my favorite power metal band. If you don't know anything about power metal, these guys are probably the band to check out first. I don't know the history of power metal, but I wonder if it was Blind Guardian that really started power metal down its dragons and maidens themes that dominates the genre. Their album Nightfall In Middle Earth, based on Tolkien's Silmarillion is a classic.

Hansi Kürsch has an amazing voice who, for a power metal singer, still sounds masculine. Imaginations From The Other Side is an older release from 1995 and one of their better ones. I've heard most of the hits from this album, but haven't actually gotten a chance to listen to the entire album from start to finish. I'm not sure that there is a weak track on this album. The songs are similar to each other in structure, but it's a good formula and the band is good enough to make it work for an entire album. You'll have many of the songs sticking in your head by the time the disc finish. The songs feature fast riffs during the verses, then slow down for the chorus where Hansi layers his voice to great effect in almost every song.

9/10 Essential Blind Guardian album.

Ajattara - Äpäre

2008-03-08T14:15:00.000-08:00

Pasi Koskinen started doing this black metal side project while he was in Amorphis and Ajattara released Itse in 2001. Of course, he's now quit Amorphis, but still has many bands, including Ajattara. I liked Pasi's voice in Amorphis, but I didn't know he was capable of the evil voice he puts forth in Ajattara. Ajattara is like a black metal version of Amorphis. Its evil and fast, but has that Finnish folk-influece that so many Finnish bands do, but not quite in this manner.

This album, like most of their albums, is short, barely breaking the 30 minute mark. This is probably for the better, because there is not a large variety of songs on the album, and anything longer would get boring quickly. In fact, there's not much variety in any of their albums... They all pretty much have the same exact sound. So if you have any other Ajattara albums, this will certainly not surprise.

7/10 Good Finnish black metal, though it sounds exactly like their other albums.

The Sword - Gods Of The Earth

2008-03-06T20:51:00.000-08:00

I first heard these guys a year or two ago when they opened up for Lacuna Coil and In Flames at the Newport in Columbus, Ohio. It was December and I was back home for the holidays. I remember that I wasn't expecting much from a band called The Sword, but these guys came out and kicked some major ass. The Sword is one of the few bands that is reviving Black Sabbath type rock, even their logo looks like its from the 70s. It's just thick simple riffs with intricate leads layed over top. Add in one Ozzy sounding frontman and you've got a recipe for some damn fine rock 'n metal.

This album doesn't deviate much from the sound of their debut, God Of Winters, but its not like they are creating something original. Instead they are diving back into something that has been mostly forgotten from today's music. Although vocals such as this is now a rarity, and its refreshing to hear someone still doing it. Everyone is either brutal death, screeching black, or soaring power vocals. These guys certainly aren't the creative powerhouse of Ozzy and Iommi, but they've brewed up a fine treat of metal.

8/10 Ozzy would approve.

Chicane - Behind The Sun

2008-03-06T18:18:00.000-08:00

And now, for something completely different...

Techno? So one of the problems with being addicted to WoW is that one tends to watch a bunch of stupid internet videos of other people playing Warcraft... As if we don't waste enough playing WoW on our own. For the most part, Warcraft videos fall under two categories: those with annoying metal songs in the background, and those with annoying techno in the background. However, once in a blue moon you'll hear some song that actually catches your ear. This is what happened with the song "Saltwater" by Chicane, so I figured what the heck, I'd give a listen to the whole album. I had even heard another Chicane song, "Don't Give Up," on Pandora that was even on this same album. (give one techno song the thumbs up, and the floodgates spew forth their electronic sewage)

Now I know pretty much nothing about techno, so...

The album starts off incredibly boring. The opening tracks are complete snores, only the second slightly piques my interest. The 4th track is "Saltwater," which I really like. It doesn't really stand out that much from other techno I've heard before, but I guess this one just has a nice melody that catches my ear. There's also a female singer roping me in with her angelic voice. I'm wondering if it's the same female that had the annoying vocals in the previous track "No Ordinary Morning." Eventually the other song I like, "Don't Give Up," comes up and I still like the song. It's got a catchy melody and chorus. Even the repetitiveness of it doesn't bother me, as its much better than the rest of the album. I'd probably be happy with a 30 minute version of this song...

Alright, so with the exception of the two songs that I like: "Saltwater" and "Don't Give Up," the whole album is a complete snore. There's a remix of "Saltwater" at the end of the album, which isn't very distinguishable from the original. I don't think I'm in any danger of becoming a techno fan.

2/10 Because only 2 tracks stand out on this hour-long snoozefest.

Arsis - As Regret Becomes Guilt

2008-03-06T17:41:00.000-08:00

Arsis presents many old demos on this As Regret Becomes Guilt. Thank goodness for these Virginians, they are breathing some much needed life back into the softening up of the melodic death metal genre. It seems as though not many bands will stand aside Dark Tranquillity in holding up the torch of melodic death metal, but Arsis seems more than happy to step up where others have fallen. I only got into these guys last year after hearing the epic "Diamond For Disease," one of the greatest melodic death metal songs released in quite awhile.

Even though this is an album of demos, it doesn't suffer from the "Oh my God what is happening to my ears" quality of many demo (or black metal) albums, and if many of the riffs and song elements from the demos weren't recognizable from the studio albums, this could pass as a studio album. It seems like many of these tracks ended up on their debut release, but there's enough to differentiate them from the studio versions that hearing the demo format isn't boring.

There's also some video content on here that makes up for the somewhat short amount of audio.

7/10 Interesting package of demos from the exciting Arsis

Illdisposed - Burn Me Wicked

2008-03-06T16:59:00.000-08:00

I said that I had to get some more from these Danes, so here's the 2006 follow-up to 1-800-Vindication entitled Burn Me Wicked. I'm only a couple songs into it but I'm not digging it as much as the previous album. The melodic parts I liked so much in Vindication have been scaled back in favor of more traditional American style heaviness. It's still a good album and I'm enjoying it, but I keep wanting to put Vindication back on just to hear the tunes on it again, because I know I liked that album more.

I do need to go back to Vindication, because I don't remember the small power-ish metal vocals that come in small doses like what I'm hearing on Burn Me Wicked. I can't say that I like it, but they hardly show up much, so it doesn't really detract from the music.

6/10 Average, decent listen, but nothing really stands out.

The Ocean - Precambrian

2008-03-04T21:40:00.000-08:00

Well, after just listening to To The Nameless Dead for the umpteenth time, I hope I'm not too harsh on these guys valiant effort to create an ALBUM similar to how I described Primordial's latest.

I know nothing about The Ocean, only that this latest release, Precambrian, was an epic work. This is a concept album about the beginnings of our Earth, all the song tracks are named after geological time periods. While listening to this, I'm thinking that an ugly, angry, bastard child of Mastodon and Pelican would sound a lot like Precambrian.

The biggest downfall of this album is the length, there is so much music that they released a few tracks on a seperate mini-CD. The album has a neat concept, however the tracks don't really give the impression of some sort of progression towards anything. The concept is epic, but the music is not. It's a good album, but they really should have cut some of the fat off the album.

There's definitely some substance to this band. I don't think they have quite matured into the sophistication of either Mastodon or Pelican, but The Ocean shows incredible vision and promise.

6/10 Epic effort, but takes the listener on a marathon that doesn't really go anywhere.

Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

2008-03-04T20:41:00.000-08:00

Now its albums like this that make the continuous search for new music worthwhile. Once again, we have a band here that has been kicking it since the early 90s that I am just now hearing for the first time. Or maybe I've heard these guys before and didn't like their previous work... I've been reading hype about this album for a bit. It's made numerous best of 2007 lists: here, here, and here. (I must note that I always take metal-rules.com reviews with a grain of salt, because they are in love with power metal, 7 out of their top 10 is power metal...)

This album is heavy folk metal done absolutely right. A thick wall of guitars continues a relentless pace accompanied by vocals with incredible emotion. My favorite thing in a vocalist is emotion. I want to hear the guy singing his heart out. He doesn't have to be the most talented vocalist, which Primordial's vocalist isn't, but To The Nameless Dead is sung with such passion that you are absorbed into the music. I usually don't care about lyrics, but this album makes me want to read along to the songs.

This album makes me think of Enslaved's masterpiece, Below The Lights, though more uplifting than the blackness of the Enslaved album. It has a similar driving pace as Below The Lights; all the songs flow together into one magnificent piece. It's really something special when a band puts together an ALBUM, and not just a bunch of great songs on 1 disc.

10/10 Definitely on my best of 2007 list.

R.I.P. Gary Gygax (1938-2008)

2008-03-04T13:22:00.000-08:00

I know this labels me as a huge dork, but Gary Gygax, the co-creater of Dungeons & Dragons, died today. You have to hand it to this guy for creating a billion dollar industry, and even many video games, such as WoW, would probably not exist if not for Gary Gygax. I played 2nd edition of DnD to absolute death. I owned just about every 2nd edition source book imaginable. Much of it is still located at my parents house, much to my Mother's annoyance.

I pretty much hate what D&D turned into with 3rd and what's coming up with 4th edition, it's all about hack 'n slash combat rules. But, none of the other fantastic pen and paper RPGs I've played would exist without Gygax's original creation.

EDIT: The Order of the Stick has an appropriate tribute to Gygax.

Engel - Absolute Design

2008-03-02T14:34:00.001-08:00

I had been waiting quite a while for this music to finally be released. Niclas Engelin had a short stint in In Flames before starting his own melodic death metal band, Gardenian, which although now defunct, had 3 very good releases. There was a brief period where it looked like Gardenian might reform, and even had some promising demos released, but that music eventually became the first demos for Engel. Whatever the name he chose to call this project, it had some promise.

However, after a long, long wait with this project in production, it became quite clear that Engel was going to try and do a radio-friendly melodeath band similar to the Passenger side project Engelin and Anders Friden released in 2003. Now not to say that it's a bad album, I actually liked the Passenger thing they did, but I guess I should give up hopes that he will return to a Gardenian sound.

Absolute Design is about what you would expect from a radio-friendly melodic swedish band. Engelin can write some catchy guitar riifs, although much simpler than anything he's done in previous bands. They got a singer that could easily be in an american nu-metal band. He has a good singing voice which gets some good use in many of the choruses, but his nu-metal voice needs to go.

4/10 Has some high points, but overall a disappointment

(I'm going to start giving x/10 ratings)

Moonspell - Under Satanae

2008-03-02T12:31:00.000-08:00

Fuck, Moonspell is badass. One of the reasons I've been going through all this music so quickly is so that I could get to some albums that I've been just dying to listen to, with this being one of them. Moonspell had a weak point when they released Darkness and Hope in 2001, and 2003's The Antidote only had a couple good tracks, but they came roaring back with Memorial, a great return to their black metal roots. I know these guys can be evil, their mostly unknown side project Daemonarch was absolutely terrifying. When I heard that Moonspell was going to re-record an album full of their pre-Wolfheart material and demos, I was super excited. Even though I never heard any of this stuff, it being stuff written slightly before the Wolfheart era, and after just having released Memorial, and calling the album Under Satanae, predicted something very menacing.

The album does not disappoint. This is classic Moonspell gothic metal, with the emphasis on the metal. I wish all goth metal was this good. Predictably, this album sounds like a mix between Memorial and Wolfheart. It is a very interesting listen though, with complex leads and interludes, and just pure evil elements. Fernando Ribeiro probably does the best voice of Satan with his death voice. If you ever had any interest in Moonspell, get this album.

Vader - Litany

2008-03-02T11:47:00.000-08:00

What the hell is wrong with me? How am I not a huge Vader fan already? I'm almost positive I've tried listening to this album years ago and for some reason didn't like it. Maybe it was the singer, it has taken me a bit to get into these more traditional death metal vocalists from bands such as Vader, Entombed, or Dismember. Even then, vocals are usually the least important element of metal to me, and unless its a really annoying power metal singer, I can hear past the singer and enjoy the music. And there's nothing about Vader's music to not enjoy. It's just heavy, heavy, and more heavy. Vader does a fantastic job at keeping it short and to the point, so as not to bore the listener. I think they understand that it can be difficult at times to listen to an entire hour of this brutality. This full length clocks in at 31 minutes, even with 11 tracks.

So that wasn't really a review of the album, but oh well. My excitement about getting into Vader should be enough to know that this 2000 release is a death metal classic.

Illdisposed - 1-800-Vindication

2008-03-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

I don't think these Danish guys know how many numbers are in our 1-800 numbers... So once again, Pandora introduces a damn good melodic death metal band to me. Of course, in Pandora style, I've only heard the song "Dark" over and over again. These guys play your typical melodeath with catchy riffs and some keyboards. Their singer has a bit more of a brutal voice than other bands that plague this genre, and it helps them stand out from the pack.

This is their 2004 release, and checking our their webpage, these guys certainly aren't newcomers to the field. It looks like they've been cranking out albums since 1993. I wonder how this album stacks up to their others. I've got digging around to do with these guys, because this album certainly rocks.

Faith No More - The Real Thing

2008-03-01T17:14:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of friends that absolutely love Faith No More. I've always had a rough time trying to listen to them because the singer has an obnoxious voice, but I feel that I should do them justice and listen to one of their entire records. I decided to get 1989 release, The Real Thing, as I recognized the songs "From Out Of Nowhere" and "Epic."

Yep, Mike Patton's voice is still annoying. Apparently, this is the first album with Patton after he joined the band. However, "From Out of Nowhere" is a great track. I think I've heard numerous covers of it before hearing this original. "Epic" is also easily recognizable, the chorus and ending piano part are played and sampled just about everywhere. I wish they'd stay away from the semi-rapping thing they do here and there. I can't stand it. Despite the rapping on Epic, I think I like it, though that just may be because it is so recognizable.

I think I could get into this album with a few more listens. At least, I understand why people love this stuff. It's kind of weird with an annoying singer, but there's some really great stuff on it.

Apocalyptica - Worlds Collide

2008-03-01T16:20:00.000-08:00

Apocalyptica has been grinding away since their 1996 release of their Metallica cover album. These cellists continually put out solid albums, though they soon moved away from their cover band approach to writing their own material. The 2001 album, Cult, introduced some vocalists on two tracks and they've been bringing in a few vocalists here and there since that release to support some of their songs. Although with this album, they've gotten some big names to contribute. It sounds like Corey Taylor provides vocals on the track "I'm Not Jesus." Rammstein's singer does the vocals on the David Bowie cover "Heroes," which sung in german is called "Helden." At first this struck me as out of place, because I wouldn't have though his vocal style would mesh well with Apocalyptica, but it turned out well. The singer of Three Days Grace, who I don't think I've ever heard does the song "I Don't Care." And the lovely Christina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil, rounding out the guest list, does a wonderful job on "S.O.S."

Here's the video for "I'm Not Jesus."

Vreid - Pitch Black Brigade

2008-03-01T15:11:00.001-08:00

I've been listening to quite a bit of black metal lately. Vreid and Alghazanth is probably the closest I've gotten to kvlt as fuck though. I thought Vreid would beat out Alghazanth but no corpse paint can be found on Vreid's webpage. For shame!!!

These guys are similar to Alghazanth, though maybe a bit for folk influenced, approaching the sound of Windir. Pitch Black Brigade (seriously, what is up with all these black metal album titles being 3 words long?) is a good example of some typical black metal that would probably not even be called sell-out black metal in the extreme black metal community, as silly as that sounds...

Vader - Art Of War

2008-03-01T10:41:00.000-08:00

I've only recently started getting into Vader. This Polish band has been tearing it up since the early 90s and has a sizable discography. Once again, Pandora has introduced me to a band that I've previously never given myself the opportunity to enjoy. Seeing as how I'm just getting into this band, I can't really compare this mini CD to the rest of their catalog.

Art Of War is only 14 minutes long, and interspersed with 2 instrumental tracks, but the 4 actual songs on it are superb examples of what these death metal veterans are capable of. "Lead Us!!!" is obviously the highlight of this album, but the whole thing flows together very well for the 14 minutes of face-pounding brutality. I think Vader is smart in releasing many of these shorter mini CD's, as its a good introduction to the band, without the listener being overwhelmed by an entire 40 minutes.

Scheitan - Berzerk 2000

2008-03-01T09:55:00.000-08:00

Berzerk is the first album by an obscure, even for metal, band released in 1998. I only know of two releases by this group. I already had their 2nd release, Nemesis, but this one has been nigh impossible to attain. I only had a couple mp3's of two of the slower tracks "Soulside" and "Sad to Say" that feature vocals from a female with a very good voice. These guys play kind of a rougher, more raw, goth metal thing. It's a shame this band didn't get more exposure, because they write some really good songs. Oskar Karlsson, who handled drums and some guitar and bass in Scheitan, was in Gates of Ishtar and currently plays drums in The Duskfall.

Alghazanth - Osiris Typhon Unmasked

2008-02-29T22:33:00.000-08:00

Warning: I'm kind of drunk right now, so this is probably going to be very poorly written.

Here's the 2001 release from another black metal band called Alghazanth. I don't know much about these guys, they are very typical of the Dimmu Man's Child style of black metal. It's nothing too original, but its well done, and I am enjoying the listen. It's not the polished production of Dimmu or OMC and the vocalist sounds a bit more like he would fit in a swedish melodeath band, similar to one of my old favorites, Without Grief. He still molds well with the overall black metal sound they have going though. Just like DB and OMC, there are good melodies placed throughout the album that will keep you interested.

I liked the 2004 release, The Polarity Axiom, and will have to check out the newest release by these guys, Wreath of Thentat... Black metal bands always have the silliest album titles.

Alestorm - Captain Morgan's Revenge

2008-02-28T21:23:00.000-08:00

Umm... Pirate metal? This is a new one to me. Are there any other bands out there that do this? I've just started listening to this album, and its actually quite catchy. I was expecting to have to stop it on account of lame silliness after 2 tracks. If metal bands existed in 1600 Caribbean America, they would sound something like Alestorm. Its kind of like viking metal, but with pirate themes instead of vikings. Or to steal a quote from their myspace page: "If pirates had a wall of Marshalls."

They lyrical content, since its sung by a vocalist that can be understood, seems to be about all your favorite pirate adventures involving drinking, sunken treasures, sailing the seas, and tavern wenches. "With the power of ale, he could not fail." These guys are Scottish, so I guess it's not that surprising that drinking is a large part of their lyrical inspiration.

Musically, this is great stuff. There's heavy riffs, some blistering solos, and damn catchy sing-a-long choruses involving drinking. These guys must be an absolute blast live.

Old Man's Child - Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion

2008-02-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

This album cover could be artwork for the Armies of Chaos in the aforementioned Warhammer game.

Old Man's Child shouldn't need much of an introduction. Galder created this band and is the main participant. He hires session musicians for recording albums and probably touring, although I have no idea if he still tours with this band. It turns out that Gene Hoglan played drums on this one. Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion was released in 1998, before Galder eventually joined the similar sounding Dimmu Borgir. My introduction to this band was when I started hearing the more popular black metal bands, such as Dimmu Borgir. I'm not sure why its taken me this long to get around to one of their older albums such as this.

Old Man's Child is very much a more raw, stripped down, Dimmu Borgir. The songwriting and song structures are similar, its just not quite the epic grandeur that defines Dimmu Borgir. I really should compare OMC to something other than Dimmu, but I'm just drawing blanks for other bands... I really like this genre of black metal, I just haven't been listening to much of it lately. Perhaps this album will get me digging around for some of my other albums, because its typical Old Man's Child, which is definitely good.

Scarve - The Undercurrent

2008-02-28T17:53:00.000-08:00

Here is the latest 2007 release from Scarve. These guys play decent death metal. The singer is becoming to comfortable with his clean voice using some echo effects. His death voice is very good, I'm not sure why he doesn't stick to it more. Perhaps they have more than one singer. I suppose I could find out, but I'm feeling too lazy to even do some Google searching. The track "Plundered" rocks very hard and has a good, catchy chorus which seems to layer both his clean and death voices. The final few tracks unfortunately slow down a bit, drag on, and leave a dull aftertaste despite how good most of the album was.

Demiurg - Breath Of The Demiurg

2008-02-28T17:02:00.000-08:00

Hmmm... I don't know what Demiurg means, and the only thing I can dig up on google (besides the band) is that there was some demiurg virus and this wikipedia article on the Demiurg.

In the tabletop miniature wargame Battlefleet Gothic, the Demiurg are an alien race of squat semi-humanoids, who share many traits with the typical fantasy dwarf stereotype: they are avid miners, expert traders, and, in some ways, further technologically advanced than humans. They also bear a particular hatred for goblinoids (Orks in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, of which Battlefleet Gothic is a part).

I have to admit that I used to play Warhammer, so I find this incredibly humorous. However, this album is nothing close to humorous; it is a face-melting assault of death metal. Wow! This band feautures Dan Swanö of Edge of Sanity fame. He's not doing the vocals, but according to their myspace page, he did drums for this first album and now plays guitar.

In any event, this is some heavy, somewhat slower paced (for death metal), grooving album. The vocals remind me of Michael Akerfelt from the first Bloodbath album, or possibly Dismember's vocalist, whose new CD I should be coming up to sometime soon. I think we've got here a new powerhouse in the death metal scene.

EDIT: Ok, this is much more likely for their inspiration for the bandname.

Demiurge (from the Greek δημιουργός dēmiourgós, Latinized demiurgus, meaning "artisan" or "craftsman", lit. "public or skilled worker" (from δήμιος demos (common people) + έργον ergos (work)[1]) is a term for a creator deity, responsible for the creation of the physical universe.

How to board a plane?

2008-02-28T12:41:00.000-08:00

Here's a fun read via the Physics Today News Picks. A Physicist from Fermilab ran a Monte Carlo simulation to model people boarding a plane.

Vital Remains - Icons Of Evil

2008-02-26T21:39:00.000-08:00

Brutal...

Glen Benton once again lends his voice to this super intense Vital Remains release. This album follows in the same footsteps as the previous releases. Vital Remains serves up only the finest heavy, technical, and sacrilegious death metal. The guitars are very interesting, although you can't listen to closely to them, because of the constant assault from Glen Benton's vocals. And these songs aren't short, each song clocks in at 7 or 8 minutes of brutality. If anything, I'm not sure I can take an hour and seven minutes of this intensity. This is a great album, and any brutal death metal fan should instantly pick this up.

Trail Of Tears - Profoundemonium

2008-02-26T08:14:00.000-08:00

Allright, so here's another review-as-I-listen of the 2000 release by Trail Of Tears. I've liked a couple other albums by this band. The album released after this one, A New Dimension of Might, is very good, so I'm expecting that I will enjoy this.

Track 1 - Boring two and a half minute orchestral intro track. I hate long intro tracks.

Track 2 - I'm not really sure whats going on with this song yet. It started out with some really bad deep vocals, but then improved with some angelic and female vocals. Now it's got some standard death vocals and some good guitar riffs. I was worried for a bit that this would be a very short post because I almost stopped the album. Talk about impatience...

Track 3 - This track is reminding me of the band Anorexia Nervosa with a slightly different singer for some reason. Well it was, now it slowed down and the female vocals came in. The male singer doesn't have a very good clean voice.

Track 4 - The title track opens with just bass and keys and a somewhat lame intro riff. Not a very exciting track.

Track 5 - I swear this song has the same somewhat lame riff from the last song. The angelic vocals from the female singer aren't incredibly good, and I'm usually a sucker for any female voice. I like her regular singing voice, she needs to stick to that.

Track 6 - "Preludium" is an annoying way of saying "intro." I guess this track is just an intro to the following track. A simplistic keyboard track which is too long. We already had an intro to the album. This next song better be fucking awesome.

Track 7 - Opens with a very thrash metal sounding guitar riff. Nothing spectacular though. I took a bathroom break when the angelic voice came in. This is one of the better tracks on the album thus far, but that's not saying much.

Track 8 - The rest of these are probably going to be short because I've lost most interest in this album, but I'm almost through it, so I'll tough it out. Cut it out with those angelic voices. This track is actually better than the last, except for when the female starts piping in. Ugh, she just held a ten second note.

Track 9 - I wonder if this is the same female singer from the other albums I actually like. According to wikipedia, this woman left the band soon after this album.

Track 10 - Only 2 tracks left, unfortunately this one is the longest, clocking in at 7:30. Wow, this band has had all sorts of member changes. It looks like they even officially split up in 2006, but then reformed.

Allright I think I'm done with this. I'll keep listening to the last track, but I don't feel any need to write anything on it. I doubt it's going stray far from this mostly boring sound they have on this album. I got to say that I'm disappointed with this album, I really was expecting that I would like it.

Theatre Of Tragedy - Storm

2008-02-25T19:23:00.000-08:00

Theatre of Tragedy sounds nothing like they used to on Aegis. I haven't followed this band too closely, but somewhere along the line they started incorporated a lot of synthesizers into their sound and moved towards being more industrial than metal. Liv Kristine, who went on to form Leave's Eyes, provided the angelic voices in this band until being replaced by Nell Sigland, another woman with a similar voice. You can visit their corny named website Pages of Tragedy here. I like a few tracks from the 2001 album Musique, though I completely passed on the last album, Assembly.

The biggest problem with their current sound is the male vocals. He stopped doing death vocals and just does a clean voice now, which is dreadful sounding. The best songs in their current form are ones where he has a minimal, or non-existant, presence. The band needs to eject him, or just stop him from singing and let him write, as it looks like he does the programming for the band. None of his vocal lines contribute positively to the songs. They could either be eliminated from the song or sung by Nell.

With that being said about the male vocals, its still not a bad album, certainly better than Assembly. Its soft industrial rock with female vocals, but many songs are catchy with memorable choruses.

Spiritual Beggars - Mantra III

2008-02-25T18:22:00.000-08:00

This is an earlier 1998 release from my newly discovered Spiritual Beggars. This album almost predates Arch Enemy. Arch Enemy put out Black Earth in 1996. It looks like Spiritual Beggars put out their self titled debut in 1994, when Michael Amott was still doing Carcass. Even though this album is 7 years Demons senior, it still carries a similar sound. Perhaps it is a little more bluesy instead of... power-y? than Demons. Despite the super lame album cover, its still a great listen.

Spiritual Beggars - Demons

2008-02-24T17:13:00.000-08:00

Wow, this album is killer. I've heard about this Michael Amott (of Arch Enemy) side project, but never actually got around to listening to it. The band also features Sharlee D'Angelo of Arch Enemy. While listening to this, I thought that power rock would be a good description, and low and behold, on their myspace page it states: "HEAVY POWER ROCK FROM SWEDEN!!!" Michael Amott is a master of writing catchy riffs and I'm sure this album is a release for many riffs that Amott writes that don't quite fit the metal-ness of Arch Enemy. The vocalist approaches the power metal style without crossing over to the lame side ala Rhapsody or Hammerfall. This album is just a good rock album similar to perhaps Corrosion of Comformity or even Clutch with more leads. Great stuff. I've got a lot of digging around to do to uncover some more from this band.

Enslaved - Monumension

2008-02-24T12:20:00.000-08:00

Once again, here's an older album I'm checking out from a band that I've loved their newest releases. I discovered Enslaved after the release of Below The Lights. Below The Lights is still probably my favorite release by these guys, although for some reason I never got around to checking out their older catalogue after hearing it. Enslaved plays kind of a black folk metal type thing.

The first 3 tracks of Monumension are heavy and fast black metal, similar to what Below The Lights, Isa, and Ruun continue to perfect. The fourth track, Hollow Inside, makes heavy used of keyboards and clean spoken vocals, and begins slowing down the album. The rest of the album is weak compared to the strong start of the song. It still provides for an interesting listen, but they really could have scaled back many of the keys and spoken vocals. Enslaved is so very good at writing fast, heavy riffs and the singer has a distinctive metal rasp.

Overall, Monumension is a good album. It doesn't match up against Below the Lights and later, but is an interesting listen to hear what they would eventually head towards soundwise.

Between The Buried And Me - Alaska

2008-02-24T10:32:00.001-08:00

BTBAM play a very original form of... well, metalcore I suppose. It's all hard hitting riffs and vocals with some minor nuances and complexities that really add color to the songs. I got this album because after hearing their latest album, Colors, I just had to hear more from this band. I don't know about their earlier albums, but this thing stays far away from any breakdowns and the annoying shit that sometimes shows up in many metalcore bands. And there aren't any radio friendly clean sung choruses on this thing. If there is any complaint to this band, its that the rough vocals of the singer aren't incredibly varied. Along with "Colors" and their very fun cover album "The Anatomy Of..." this is a great album that deserves a listen from any metal fan.

Concert - All That Remains, Chimaira, Black Tide, Light This City

2008-02-24T09:54:00.000-08:00

This is only the second time that All That Remains has played Las Vegas, and I imagine they will be stopping by Vegas on many of their future tours. They packed Jillians, which is pretty much the only small venue Vegas has that will book underground metal bands. I was actually surprised that All That Remains, and not Chimaira was headlining. I thought that Chimaira would have the bigger draw, but I was wrong.

I arrived a bit late to the show and had missed the opening band, 7th Son. There was an enormous line which caused me to miss Light This City's opening song, which turned out to be kind of annoying, since they only got to play 5 songs. This is the second time I've had the pleasure of seeing Light This City and, although a short set, they were the best until All That Remains hit the stage. These guys, and girl, play straight up thrash, with Laura Nichol tearing up with her vocals. I didn't realize this band was fronted by a woman when I had first heard songs from their latest album, Facing The Thousand.

Next up was Black Tide, the new young band from Florida, that is getting some serious promotion for sounding like an old 80s thrash band, which is ironic, considering I'm not sure if any of the members were actually born in the 80s. Needless to say, this is a young band, the singer is only 15, and I doubt the rest are out of high school either. However, these kids can play. Both the guitarists show incredible talent, and the drummer was powerful. I don't know about the bass, cause in true 80s thrash style, you couldn't hear it... Maybe that was just the mix that night though. Even though these kids were talented, the songs were a bit boring. If I want to listen to 80s thrash, I will put in my Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth. They did a decent cover of Hit The Lights, although they pretty much played it note for note as the original. My biggest gripe with this band is that the singer is terrible. Maybe in a couple years when his voice finishes changing it will be stronger, but it was very weak last night. The problem with bands doing the 80s thrash thing, is that it pigeonholes them into trying to sound exactly like Metallica and Megadeth, and I its very unlikely that a band will write songs than stand up to those kings of the 80s.

After Black Tide, came Chimaira. I listened to one song, but then went to get a beer. Sin City Brewing Co. makes a very good hoppy amber, similar to a Fat Tire or a Sierra Nevada. Chimaira is boring... They used to play hardcore, but supposedly their newer album was more straightforward metal. I don't know, I tried listening to it, but could only get through a couple songs before being bored. And their opening song last night did nothing to persuade me that they were going to do anything other than the boring breakdown driven hardcore that I have always heard from them.

All That Remains had a bigger crowd than their first time here, so they were pumped up and ready to go. Not much to say about this band, they kicked ass just like last time. Their guitarist can sure write catchy and super heavy riffs. And the vocalist has an amazing set of pipes. He hits a large variety of styles, but mostly does his cookie monster with clean vocals mixed in. His clean vocals are very, very good. They really shine in the choruses to "For Salvation" and "This Calling."

Beseech - Sunless Days

2008-02-23T12:49:00.000-08:00

Beseech is goth metal that doesn't suck or try to be too radio friendly like Lacuna Coil has become. They are fronted by melancholic vocals from Erik Molarin and the very beautiful Lotta Hoglin. Of course, I should add that I'm a sucker for pretty girls with amazing voices. Both their voices flow together very well with the music. The problem with most goth metal is that so many songs are too melodramatic and just drone on to the point of annoying. Beseech concentrates on just writing catchy songs.

I have their two previous great albums: Souls Highway and Drama, and this 2005 release is just as good. They don't stray much from their formula, but why should they? They have a very good sound that will keep people listening.

Here's the kind of silly animated video to Innerlane

Moonsorrow - Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

2008-02-21T20:35:00.000-08:00

I have no idea how to pronounce the title of this album, but I think it translates roughly to "Crushing Viking Metal." I have the newer albums Kivenkantaja and Viides Luku - Hävitetty from Moonsorrow's catalogue. I am not typing out anymore of their song or album names in this review. This album is one of their earlier albums that was released in 2001 and stacks up just as high against their later masterpieces.

Needless to say, with the album and song titles, all the lyrics are in Finnish, so at least I don't even have to try and understand what is being growled and screamed in the songs. Most metalheads are familiar with viking metal and various bands that run the field. If Moonsorrow is unfamiliar to you, think of them as a mix between Amon Amarth and Finntroll. They use some folkish elements like Finntroll, but never get quite as silly as Finntroll, and instead keep a driving heavy pace akin to Amon Amarth. Some viking metal bands often become a bit too silly in their imagery and folk elements. I can usually deal with it, but sometimes these bands just become too much, such as Battlelore, seen below...

Many of the songs here are long and epic, breaking past the 7 and 8 minute mark. Moonsorrow is one of the best in this genre and anyone that is a fan of Amon Amarth, Finntroll, or Thyrfing should eat this band up.

Built To Spill - Keep It Like A Secret

2008-02-21T19:47:00.000-08:00

So my girlfriend likes Built To Spill, so since I have all these Built To Spill albums sitting around, I guess I'll review one. This is one of those bands, similar to Grandaddy, that I'm not really sure why I like. Its happy alternative stuff that is very much not metal. I even saw them live, and managed to enjoy the show. They have three guitarists for some unknown reason. None of their songs are that technical as to require three guitarists at any time. They are probably just too nice to kick out the unnecessary member.

The album doesn't really have any standout tracks, much of it sounds the same, but its a fun, relaxing listen.

This is nothing different than the other two Built To Spill albums I've listened to: Ancient Melodies Of The Future, and You In Reverse. I imagine these guys have a sound they will never stray too far from... Kinda like Slayer. I should call them the Slayer of... well, whatever this style of music is called.

Audioslave - self-titled

2008-02-21T18:01:00.000-08:00

Nobody actually needs an album like this reviewed for them. Audioslave was popular enough that most everyone has probably heard a few songs from this album, such as "Cochise" or "Show Me How To Live," but this site is mostly for myself to better my pathetic writing skills. (And no one reads my blog anyway...) I figure if I keep on writing, I'm bound to eventually get better. Right? That's how these things work?

In any event, Audioslave is the boys from Rage Against the Machine with the terrible singer replaced by Chris Cornell. I always really liked Soundgarden. They had great riffs and Cornell has a great voice. However, I absolutely hated Rage Against The Machine; their songs grate on my nerves. So I wasn't sure how I would first react to Audioslave, being that they are mostly just RAtM. However, Audioslave is much more straighforward radio friendly rock, thanks to the leadership of Chris Cornell. Soul Power's (I forget his name, Tom something or other?) guitar whackiness, which I never really thought was all that great, comes through on many of the tracks, such as "What You Are" and "Like a Stone." I think just some catchy bluesy licks or solos would be much more fitting than the random noise he makes. Tom can do it, he is a great guitarist, and "Getaway Car" breaks out some good 'ol blues, and is the highlight of the last few tracks.

Overall, this is a very good alternative rock album. I Will have to check out the other two Audioslave albums.

Astarte - Demonized

2008-02-20T21:12:00.000-08:00

Women in metal bands is hot. Astarte has 3, and 3 hot ones at that! The male members are listed as just session members on their myspace page, probably just so that they can call themselves a female black metal band. Careful of that myspace link, its rough on the eyes. Black text over a black and white background does not work...

Being dominated by female members is probably the only reason this band gets any sort of press. Otherwise they play melodic black metal in the vein of Dimmu Borgir or Old Man's Child, although not as epic. It's nothing incredibly original, but it's done well. They probably could have cut a few tracks, as the thing clocks in at 64 minutes, which is about 20 black metal minutes more than I can sit through. The blond singer, Tristessa, has a slighty more glass-swallowing voice than Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy. Angela contributes vocals on the track "Black at Heart" and there's some other guest vocals here and there.

Here is their new video for the track Everlast

If you are digging these more brutal female fronted bands, check out the album Aura Sense by Enter Chaos. And if you just want complete brutality from a woman, listen to Merlin. She's not at all attractive, but she's got a brutal voice.

City Of God - A New Spiritual Mountain

2008-02-20T19:25:00.000-08:00

Here's another album I know absolutely nothing about. I think I stumbled across it because the band name is the same as a movie that the filthy critic enjoyed and that I put on my blockbuster queue. Doing a quick google search turns up some other reviews that tells me this is a UK supergroup formed from former members of Kill II This, Xentrix, and Paradise Lost... I've heard Paradise Lost, heard of Xentrix, and have not heard of Kill II This. Seems like this album was released in 2005, but a link to their bandpage isn't functioning, so perhaps the band didn't last.

This is actually really good. Imagine if Fear Factory didn't suck and didn't bore the listener to death. The opening tracks are heavy and enjoyable. The title track is kind of weak, but gets going again with the following song Prisms. For the most part, A New Spiritual Mountain stays interesting throughout the entire listen.

Anthrax - Persistance of Time

2008-02-20T18:16:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I never got into Anthrax at the time I started listening to Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer. Maybe it was Joey Belladonna's vocals, or perhaps I just had no exposure to them. I didn't really go out of my way looking for music while in high school, and just heard what was either on the radio or what my friends had recently purchased. So somehow this is the first time I've actually sat down and listened to this album. My first experience with Anthrax was their latest album We've Come For You All, which is absolutely fantastic. I imagine I'm in the minority that likes John Bush better than Joey Belladonna.

I'm not sure I like the production on this album. The drums and vocals are fine, but the guitar sound is weak, which is a damn shame, considering there is monster riffing aplenty all throughout the album.

I can't really compare this album to the rest of their catalog, simply because I haven't heard anything except We've Come For You All. I'll try and get around to listening to the rest of their stuff, because I'm sure I will like most of it. Various old school Anthrax songs have been coming up on my Pandora radio station and has been urging me to get more. ...I think I have Stomp 442 around here.

Bruce Hornsby & The Range - The Way It Is

2008-02-13T20:03:00.000-08:00

What the hell is this? This isn't metal...

So I've enjoyed the song "The Way It is" for a while now, but haven't ever heard the rest of the album it was from, nor anything else by Bruce Hornsby. This is mellow piano-driven folkish music similar to Billy Idol or umm... who's the guy that sings American Pie? Ahh yes, Don McLean. Thank you google. From the info on Bruce's website, this album was released in 1986 and appears to be his first recording.

It is very, very rare that I actually enjoy this type of music. The vocals, piano, and bluesy guitars create some memorable tunes. Even the lame drum machine fits the music and doesn't detract from the music. I'm not willing to reach much more into my sensitive side to talk about the love tones of the songs, so I'm just going to call this commentary done.

The title track is so good; its just waiting to be covered and redone as a hard rock or metal song.

The Physics of Racing

2008-02-13T11:07:00.000-08:00

Here is physicist and racing enthusiast Brian Beckman's Physics of Racing Series (PhoRS). There's quite a bit of concepts and physics here relating to racing. Beckman does a good job of explaining the physics behind many driving fundamentals. A fun read for someone who is either interested in driving cars fast or just a huge physics nerd like myself.

Bleed The Sky - Paradigm In Entropy

2008-02-09T16:47:00.000-08:00

I'm going to keep this post rather short as I want to get back to reading Our Dumb World. Pandora radio introduced this band to me. I've probably heard the opening song "Minion" a hundred times already. Pandora has this terrible problem of playing the same tracks over and over instead of different tracks from bands that you give a thumbs-up. I'm terrible at categorizing metal bands, so I'll just say that Bleed The Sky is similar to Cannae as they play metalcore. These guys make good use of some clean vocals. The album would even be good if not for the breakdowns that ruin a few songs.

Cannae - Gold Becomes Sacrifice

2008-02-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

I already have the 2003 album Horror by this band. However, I know basically nothing about this band, so I journeyed over to their myspace page. The page hasn't really been updated lately, hopefully the band is still alive and well. This album was released in 2005. This Boston 5 piece (although looks like a 4 piece as their drummer position seems currently unfilled) claims they are a death metal / hardcore band... Which means just about anything you want it to today. The elements that I usually associate with hardcore (annoying repetitious breakdowns and terrible vocals) are mostly absent from the album. A couple songs get close, but manage to avoid breaking down into the usual sound that plagues terrible hardcore bands. (haha, terrible pun... I suck.) The opening track "Rats, Snakes, and Thieves" gets things rolling with a riff that sets the tone for the rest of the album. With the exception of a small acoustic break with the track of "Collapse" the record stays strong and heavy throughout. Memorable tracks are the aforementioned opening track, "Marked by Monuments," and "Bastinado" for one of the few guitar solos on the record.

Accept - Metal Heart

2008-02-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

The only reason I checked out this album was because of Dimmu Borgir's killer cover of Metal Heart. My only previous exposure to Accept was Beavis and Butthead rocking out to the video of Balls to the Walls. If you don't know anything about this German band, just think of a cross between AC/DC and Judas Priest. If you can enjoy this somewhat cheesy form of metal, then Metal Heart is a solid album. On the other hand, if AC/DC and Judas Priest makes you run for the hills, then you should probably stay away. I don't know how this stacks up to the rest of Accept's catalog, but I'll definitely look into it. The title track is a classic metal song and the rest of the album thrashes almost as hard, although many of the songs sound similar.

November's Doom - The Pale Haunt Departure

2008-02-08T22:31:00.000-08:00

I've got a huge backlog of albums that I need to listen to. So I thought I'd do a kind of live-review as I listen to this album. November's Doom, as the name implies, plays doom metal, similar to Daylight Dies and Swallow the Sun, two bands that I love. For some reason November's Doom has never struck a chord with me, but we'll see how this goes. This album isn't even their most recent. The Novella Reservoir is the title of their newest release if I remember correctly. I tried listening to one or two tracks of that album and put it away.

track 1 - good slow, mostly clean song. It kept my interest as I started writing this review.

track 2 - Opening with some spoken vocals, which I've never liked. Now the first death vocals have started. I think it's the singer's voice that I've never liked, maybe it will grow on me. With those complaints, its turned out to be a good song.

track 3 - Ripping opening riff. It's only the third track and I'm enjoying the vocals more. That's a good sign.

track 4 - Well, back to not liking the vocals. Posting the album cover during this song. Cool album cover. This band has always had good artwork, which is what has drawn me to the band in the first place.

track 5 - This song started off not too promising, but the clean vocals and some acoustics in the middle have eased my ears.

track 6 - Just added a new link. Check out a great night shot of the shuttle Atlantis in today's astronomy picture of the day.

track 7 - Good drum intro. Bring on some thick guitars now... Singer used the line "The pale haunt departure." Strange, track 1 was the title track.

track 8 - slow clean finale to the album. Decent song with some good vocals.

Overall a decent album. Nothing spectacular to me, but if you are a big fan of doom metal and don't already know of this band, then this is worth checking out. The production is top notch, and these guys do their stuff very well. It's just not entirely my thing.

Way Late Best of 2007

2008-02-07T12:07:00.000-08:00

So I've stopped doing crack and with all my extra free time I've renewed my futile attempt at listening to every single metal album put out...

So lets just do a quick review of last year. Yeah, there was some good stuff: Dark Tranquillity put out a killer album, Devin Townsend created a zany alien named Ziltoid, Fall of the Leafe once again releases a masterpiece that goes unnoticed by everyone, and probably a bunch of other stuff I missed because of my crack addiction. However, there was one mighty newcomer that put everything else to shame.

Dethklok - Dethalbum

I really didn't follow the show Metalocalypse much until I saw the band play a free show here at UNLV. I did enjoy a couple of the episodes that I saw. The silly obscure metal band references here and there are a nice touch. (I hope a Finntroll's supermarket opens near me!) I wasn't really expecting much from the live show, even up to the point where Gene Hoglan and 3 other very non metal looking dudes took the stage. But then they ripped out the theme song and Murmaider and I was hooked. The show was unbelievably good. This humorous band was outperforming half of the real metal bands I've seen live.

Forget that this album comes from a silly, yet successful, cartoon and buy this album. Its top notch metal. The production on the album is cleaner and thicker than the songs on the myspace page, which come directly from the tv version of the songs.

What's this? A post?

2006-11-08T16:47:00.000-08:00

Maybe I'll actually start posting stuff here. Probably not, but you never know.

So my thesis is almost done. I defend next week.

I've been listening to Pandora a lot lately while writing. Commercial free radio that streams at 128kbs. Their catalog isn't quite as big as Yahoo radio yet, but it's growing.

One of the coolest bands that I never heard that came on Pandora was a punk band called The Generators. They have music up on their myspace page. Go check out the song "Here I Go." It's super catchy. I usually don't like a lot of punk, but these guys are good.

Statement of Departure

2005-11-07T11:26:00.000-08:00

My three years as guitarist of Fueled By Failure has been the most rewarding musical experience of my life. I never could have imagined doing as much with a band as we did with Fueled By Failure. I wish the guys the best in all their future musical explorations. As for myself, I will remain absent from the music scene in Vegas for I will never meet a group of people as great as these four and nothing can match the friendship I developed with them.

I will be playing two final shows with the band. Check the website for details...

\m/

Recording and art

2005-10-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

Fueled By Failure is currently recording. You can check our website for a few updates on that progress. This week we met with Casey Weldon, an artist who will do the artwork for the album. We came up with some cool ideas when we met and it will be exciting to see what he does for us.

We also have more shows coming up. Check the site for details.

Victorious!

2005-07-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

Fueled By Failure came out on top at the battle of the bands on July 14. We won the judges scoring as well as getting the most votes from people there. Our winning means that we get to play again in the next round on August 11.

METAL! \m/ Here are some pictures from the show.

Life?

2005-07-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

Holy crap. Is this an update? Maybe I'll get back to updating this semiregularly. Although I think I'm done with doing any political commentary and this will be just stuff about my life that people don't care about.

Great flyer eh? My band, Fueled By Failure, has a show coming up next week July 14. Check out our website for more details. If at all possible, you should go. It's our first show since last Halloween.

Do Libertarians have more fun?

2005-03-16T09:46:00.000-08:00

Here's a fun commentary on Libertarians.

'I don't give a sh--, and I'm not paying for sh--.'

I have no willpower

2005-03-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

I resisted as much as I could, but with everyone around me doing it...

...I bought WoW.

1 casualty

2005-03-04T12:28:00.000-08:00

Pictures are up from our latest trip to Brianhead. It was a fantastic day. It was warm, sunny, and awesome snow. Most of us had a good time; unfortunately the skier of the group really messed up his leg attempting something crazy.

Here's a closer view of my snowboard.

The pictures may be down for a bit here and there. I may be moving them to a different server, but the above link should always work.

Social security rant

2005-03-03T12:10:00.000-08:00

I haven't ranted on social security recently, and I know everyone is so interested in what I have to say about it...

The New York Times is useless in covering anything worthwhile on this subject.

On Social Security, 51 percent said permitting individuals to invest part of their Social Security taxes in private accounts, the centerpiece of Mr. Bush's plan, was a bad idea, even as a majority said they agreed with Mr. Bush that the program would become insolvent near the middle of the century if nothing was done. The number who thought private accounts were a bad idea jumped to 69 percent if respondents were told that the private accounts would result in a reduction in guaranteed benefits. And 45 percent said Mr. Bush's private account plan would actually weaken the economic underpinnings of the nation's retirement system.

Well golly, did the poll say anything about how current social security benefits are not guaranteed? Of course not. I trust the American market with my money more than I trust greedy politicians to make decisions with it.

Notwithstanding Mr. Bush's argument that citizens should be given more control over their retirement savings, almost four out of five respondents said it was the government's responsibility to assure a decent standard of living for the elderly.

I'd like to see where in our constitution this is stated. How about allowing people be responsible for themselves?

"I don't think he's listening to the people concerning Social Security," said Beverly Workman, a West Virginia Democrat who said she voted for Mr. Bush. "I think the public wants him to leave it alone."

Jim Choi, 34, an unemployed biotechnology worker from California, said: "The way the system is set up, it's not going to go bankrupt. People will get by; we all adapt."

George Bush should listen to the public, cause obviously the public is an expert on all economic issues. Screw all those fancy schmancy economists who are arguing about this, most of whom agree that the system is going to go bankrupt. But nevermind that, people will get by.

I wonder if anyone that opposes George Bush's plan even knows what it involves. The plan is such a small tweak, and get this, completely optional. The plan is not shutting down social security completely and leaving people with their money blind to any sort of investments they should pursue. I would think that any rational person who fears privatization would agree to go ahead and give this plan a whirl. If it works, great! Then the percent of payroll taxes allowed to be relocated to private accounts can be raised higher than the piddly 4% it will start at. If it is not working, then it can be canceled, or changed again.

The most important thing is that something be done. What is done doesn't necessarily have to be 100% correct. Just get across the idea that we can actually start fixing the faulty system. I don't really like Bush's plan all that much, because I don't think its enough, but its better than doing nothing at all.

The road less travelled

2005-02-22T22:18:00.000-08:00

Mattias IA Eklundh's new instrumental album is available in the states now! I just ordered mine.

I'm not dead yet...

2005-02-19T12:06:00.000-08:00

This hockey drama is driving me insane! First the season had no hopes because no talks were going on. Then as the final few days passed, it seemed as though there might be a breakthrough, but no, the two sides could not get passed a $6.5 million dollar gap and Bettman announced that the season was cancelled on Wednesday. Today, though, I read that there are talks going on, and it may not be too late to salvage a season.

So now, although I'm praying that something gets resolved and we at least get to see a little hockey this year, I'm not getting my hopes up. A short season could be really spectacular, because just about any team could make it.

UPDATE: Well crap...

A new holiday?

2005-02-17T15:11:00.000-08:00

This is absoultely ridiculous.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible White House candidate in 2008, joined 2004 nominee John Kerry and other Democrats Thursday in urging that Election Day be made a federal holiday to encourage voting.

She also pushed for legislation that would allow all ex-felons to vote.

Vote for the democrats! They will get you out of your back breaking job by creating useless holidays! Wouldn't a national holiday hurt them more? This past election was supposed to be the voice of the young voters who then didn't come out to vote. Young voters don't have jobs, so making it a national holiday wouldn't do anything for them. The only folks it would coerce to come out and vote are those who don't vote because they are hard at work on election day, and the majority of them will vote republican.

And allowing ex-felons to vote? I don't want murderers and rapists having a say in what direction our government goes.

Boxer said the bill "is meant to ensure the election debacle of 2000, and the serious election irregularities of 2004, never ever happen again."

Irregularities of 2004? 2004 went down rather smoothly and Bush won by a decent amount. I doubt any of the irregularities are worse than in previous elections. What she actually means is "...to ensure republicans never win the elections ever again."

I wonder if Hallmark would start making "happy election day!" cards?

Band update

2005-02-16T14:38:00.000-08:00

Ben made some small updates to fueledbyfailure.com. A bunch of great pictures taken of us rehearsing before one of our shows are up.

I think these were taken before the Halloween show we played with a jillion other bands. And in case you were wondering, yes those are adidas shinguards with nails punched through on my forearms. But no, I didn't actually wear those for our show that night.

We are seeking a new bassist now. The guy we were hoping would play with us has decided not to, so we must begin seeking for a permanent bassist. We're hoping to get an actual factual metalhead to join our ranks, but we'll have to see what options we get.

New cds

2005-02-12T22:37:00.000-08:00

I just got some new cds from The End. Woo!

Dark Tranquillity - Character
Daysend - Severance
Deathchain - Deadmeat Disciples
Impious - Hellucinate
The Provenance - How Would You Like To Be Spat At

The new Dark Tranquillity is fantastic. I've also been waiting quite a while for the Daysend album to be released in the states. Severance is a great debut album from this young Australian band.

UPDATE: Damn you The End! Your daily specials are going to make me go broke! I just bought Enslaved's new album entitled Isa.

I'm a really bad photographer

2005-02-08T22:13:00.000-08:00

More pictures from our weekend stay at Brianhead, Utah. Look out for all the pictures where only the ski tips are visible... Yeah, those were taken by me.

This is me failing to hit the rail and busting my ass.

Photo dump

2005-01-29T01:46:00.000-08:00

Pictures from our most recent trip to Brianhead, Utah! Go see how much fun we had on the warm sunny day. I'm obviously the one in the red shirt.

Here's us hitting some phat manuals.

These really came out well for disposable cameras. So from now on, we'll all be packing a disposable for quick pictures.

Fueled by fivesome

2005-01-28T13:51:00.000-08:00

The band may be getting a new member! Our singer/guitarist has always wanted to just do vocals, and so this may be his opportunity for that. Our bassist will be moving up to guitars (he was a guitar player playing bass anyway), and we're trying out a new bassist now. He's really a damn good bassist. Hopefully he just likes our music enough to want to do metal with us.

So stay tuned for news on our band.

Also, I recently picked up some Dean Markley 13-56 strings. These things are monsters. My 'A' string is the size of the average person's low 'E' string. Also, the 'G' string is wound! Can you say tough? It's great for tuning down 2 steps like we do.

Inaugural parody

2005-01-24T10:54:00.000-08:00

If you don't read scrappleface, you should. It's kind of a right wingish onion. It always gets a good chuckle from me.

(2005-01-23) -- A red-faced White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett announced this morning that the inaugural address delivered by President George Bush on Thursday was actually an in-house parody that was inadvertantly placed on the podium.

...

"The irony," said Mr. Bartlett, "is that the president delivered it so sincerely, that it looked like he really meant it. The guys over at the State Department had coffee shooting out of their nostrils. Of course, the good news is that none of our allies took it seriously either."

Snow on Tahoe

2005-01-11T14:09:00.000-08:00

I certainly can't complain anymore about the snow and ice we saw while in Ohio. I've never seen the amount of snow that I saw over the weekend on our snowboarding trip to Tahoe. There was about 4 feet that fell in the span of about 24 hours. Some places recorded 5-9 feet over the weekend. After we arrived it never stopped snowing until the break when we took our chance to get out of Tahoe. We saw walls of snow beside the road that towered 15 feet or more. It was unbelievable. Our car was buried completely up to the mirrors.

We stayed at Northstar for the first two nights and on Saturday we had to move to another hotel, because we couldn't afford another night at Northstar. It was an adventure that day getting out. It took us about 2 hours to dig the car out of the snow. We then had to put chains on the car, a car that should never see snow by the way. Since the Tahoe area has plows running 24 hours, we were then able to slowly chain our way to a hotel/casino not too far from Northstar.

The riding, however, was awesome. Despite the low visibility from the constant snowfall and the high winds, the mountains were dying to be ridden. We had hoped to ride at more places than just Northstar, but the weather prevented us from getting to Heavenly. We got a lot of riding in at Northstar though. I think I now have the skill of snowboarding down, as long as I don't take it too fast. I'm even learning to ride with either leg forward, known as switch in snowboarding lingo. It won't be too long before I'm hitting fat manuals, monster jumps, and kicking rails.

For the beer drinkers, there is a microbrew at North Tahoe called Lake Tahoe Brewing Co. that has amazing beer. If anyone makes it to Tahoe, definitely stop by this fine establishment and down many beers.

We took some pictures of the trip, maybe I'll be able to get some of those up here soon.

Equal restrictions

2005-01-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

Leave it to Thomas Sowell to give me a new perspective on gay marriage.

Of all the phony arguments for gay marriage, the phoniest is the argument that it is a matter of equal rights. Marriage is not a right extended to individuals by the government. It is a restriction on the rights they already have.

People who are simply living together can make whatever arrangements they want, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual. They can divide up their worldly belongings 50-50 or 90-10 or whatever other way they want. They can make their union temporary or permanent or subject to cancellation at any time.

Marriage is a restriction. If my wife buys an automobile with her own money, under California marriage laws I automatically own half of it, whether or not my name is on the title. Whether that law is good, bad, or indifferent, it is a limitation of our freedom to arrange such things as we ourselves might choose. This is just one of many decisions that marriage laws take out of our hands.

So its not a matter of equal rights, but a matter of equal restriction of their rights! Homosexuals should feel good that they cannot have the restrictions of marriage forced upon them. Instead of fighting for marriage rights, they should fight for changes in all the ridiculous laws that marriage allows loopholes for, and then marriage as a government institution will no longer need to exist.

I remember hearing Bush's response to some question referring to the advantages of marriage in avoiding the death tax was something to the effect of "I want to get rid of the death tax." He didn't address how he would give equal rights to homosexuals. He instead addressed the root of the problem of how the government unrightly takes people's hard earned money away when they die instead of giving out the money as directed by the person's will.

I do not understand people's desire to have the government involved in so many aspects of their lives. The government became involved in marriage in the first place to prevent interracial marriages.

Happy New Year!

2005-01-03T13:00:00.000-08:00

...and all that jazz.

My holidays were kind of jacked. Ohio experienced a horrible winter storm and our house was without power for four whole days. It was quite an experience. The only thing to keep ourselves occupied was building and maintaining a fire and drinking.

Hopefully I'll get some more blog action going soon.

We're hitting up a four day snowboarding trip to Tahoe this thursday. I just bought myself a kicking snowboard so that I can fall and wreck in style.

A cowboy to hell

2004-12-09T09:21:00.000-08:00

Dimebag Darrell

1966-2004

Sad, sad news today in the metal world. We lost an amazing guitarist last night. Dimebag was a very original guitarist and inspired many budding metalheads. I have seen Pantera a couple of times and they always put on an amazing show. I guess any chance for a Pantera reunion died along with Dimebag.

I even went to see this Damageplan tour when they hit Las Vegas. We didn't stay for Damageplan regrettably, mostly because they aren't all that great, but I wish I had now, just to see Dimebag play one last time.

And this all happened at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio. I often went to the Alrosa because that's where most metal shows went in Columbus. What a tragedy.

Many news postings are claiming no motive is known. It seems pretty obvious to me that it was some disgruntled Pantera fan. Perhaps even one that has been angered by the harsh words between Dimebag and Phil Anselmo and ultimately took Anselmo's side. At least the gunman was shot dead by the police at the scene. I salute Officer James D. Niggemeyer for handling the situation so well. He probably saved many other lives.

If you want some Pantera listening today, SnakeNet radio is playing exlusively Pantera today.