Wednesday, March 30, 2011

iPod Fail!


As much as I love my ipod it can be such a pain in the ass sometimes. It has all my music on it but the music is showing as "other" instead of "music". Of course this means that its all there on the ipod somewhere, but I cant find it either on the iPod while it's docked on my computer or not. Basically I just have 30gigs of music just sitting unusable. Apparently the only way to fix this is to restore my iPod and put everything back on.

Just one of the many problems I've had with my 120gig 6th Gen Classic over the last couple years.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Christianity, Islam, and Metal

I read a blog post today on the blog Full Metal Attorney that had to do with Islam in metal. The blogger came to the conclusion that the anti-religious bands who continue to bad mouth Christianity but won't touch Islam with a 10 foot pole are either idiots or cowards. I have to say I completely agree with him.

Let's admit it! For all the bullshit bands like to spout about Christianity being dangerous and brainwashing and all that other garbage, Christianity isn't nearly as dangerous as Islam has and continues to be in our modern times. Sure people like to point to the crusades and other abuses by the church and those who took advantage of followers of Christianity to further their own personal agendas. Ok yeah I admit it was bad and there is no excuse but these things happened how many years ago now? Hundreds? The West has progressed and religion no longer affects what nations we go to war with. You don't see Christians going to Muslim countries to blow people up do you?

This whole thing came to a head for me a few weeks ago when I read a post on Metal Archives about a Kuwaiti metal band. In their post (it was a sort of promotional post by members of the band) they discussed different facets of the band. They made mention of a song I believe about how christianity is dangerous. I made a post asking how is it that they live in a region that houses one of the most violent religions of our time yet they are still picking on Christianity? Apparently the guy who writes the lyrics isn't even a Muslim and said he/they dislike all religions. But still, they don't have the balls to write lyrics about their dislike for all religions, including Islam, and just go ahead with everyone's favorite whipping boy Christianity.

So why not more bands ragging on Islam? Are they scared of the backlash they would receive from Muslims? I thought metal was cool about everyone speaking your minds about how you feel about politics and religion? Apparently its a yes unless you don't want to piss off the wrong people. Honestly this whole cherry picking of what religion(s) to pick on (ok we can take out the s because it isn't plural, christianity is it) is pretty pathetic. Its been around 30 years since bands started trashing christians. Its no longer edgy or shocking. No christians don't really give a shit if you don't like us and make it known in your music. I'm a christian myself and I listen to plenty of satanic/anti-christian metal so its obviously isn't doing its job anymore. In fact I'm sure most christian metalheads don't take your lyrics seriously whether you mean them to be or not.

I would love to see some bands who have the guts to speak out against Islam instead of railing against Christianity...again. Cause really ladies and gents, its just getting old. If you really hate ALL religions like most anti-religious bands say they do then start showing it. Otherwise you are as the guy from FMA said, cowards who are too scared to offend Islamic peoples.

Update 3/24

It's kind of difficult to make blog posts from a phone. I can't really add pictures or videos to posts so I mostly get stuck just having to post without them.

Luckily soon I will get the internet again and will be able to add a little more media to my posts.

I've been thinking of starting to more and more reviews of more modern late 00s albums. I'll probably still do albums from the 80s and 90s just not as often.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Enjoying the softer side

So I've been listening to The Dillinger Escape Plan (Ire Works) and Between the Buried and Me (The Great Misdirect) a lot these last few days. I'm finding it a little amusing that off of each of these albums their slower songs are leaving more of an impact on me than the rest of the tracks. Of course that isn't to say the rest of the songs are bad but Desert of Song by BtBaM and Mouth of Ghosts both stick out like a sore thumb on their respective albums, and not in a bad way.

Maybe it's because they seem like they are out of place? Well considering the two bands it's hard to say any form/style of music is out of place. They both have no problem having multiple styles both inside and out of the extreme music genre in their albums and sometimes even songs. Especially BtBaM.

Mouth of Ghosts starts out with a piano and some soft moody drumming. The bass is also very present. The guitars come in shortly playing clear notes. The song is basically building and building but the mood never breaks, and it's a sort of melancholy sort of atmosphere that brings to mind sitting outside on a rainy day. It is a soft enough track that it could have gotten radio play but it is still so spastic, especially the drumming (which is awesome), that I'm not sure how the mainstream audience would feel about it. It sort of maintains the dissonance but the ending is really catchy and heavier than the rest of the song.

Then we have Between the Buried and Me's song Desert of Song. This one also has a sort of sad tinge about it. But in a different way than Dillinger's track which is about a breakup. This song is a bit deeper lyrically. Seems to be about music being outlawed or something of the sort so people go to the desert which is the only place where they can't be found by those trying to stop them. The song has a very blues/country sound to it. Giles does vocals as usual but he is also joined by someone else from the band who has a deeper more bassy voice than his. Overall if you were to mix Pink Floyd with a country artist this sounds like what the outcome would be. There are also some slight musical build ups here and there and a nice little solo.

I have to admit I'm enjoying Dillinger more than BtBaM at the moment, they are a trip!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Review: Edge of Sanity - Crimson


Band: Edge of Sanity
Album: Crimson
Year: 1996
Genre: Progressive/Melodic Death Metal

Edge of Sanity may be the only band who can write a 1 song album lasting 40 minutes that I can listen all the way through and want to listen again. Yes this album is that good. I think it's safe to say that Dan Swano had the biggest hand in creating this album and you can tell by how progressive it is.

Ok so first off the lyrics of Crimson are excellent. Swano's vocals are deep and guttural but like Karl Willets from Bolt Thrower, you can still understand what he is saying. So the vocal performance is very fitting to the story. And its a great story at that! A king and queen rule over a population who are unable to reproduce thus bringing the extinction of humans in the near future. The rest of the song recount's the king and queen's child being born, their daughter becoming evil by an unholy god and her rule over what is left of humanity. No worries though, eventually a group of people take her prisoner and humanity is given the gift of life once more.

I have never heard a song that mirrors the emotion of the story being told so well. It is expertly done on Crimson. When the Queen dies (during child birth) and later the King as well, the music echoes this becoming sorrowful and sad. When the populace finds out they have been deceived into sacrificing themselves for the queen it becomes furious and chaotic. The music matches the actions of the story in a truly impressive way.

Swano gives a terrific performance as well. His death growls are as evil sounding as ever but his cleans happen to shine just as bright. Mike Akerfeldt from Opeth contributes both clean and harsh vocals as well. In fact he let's a absolutely morbid scream and holds it for quite a while and it sounds pretty badass.

There are some very memorable riffs in Crimson. We have some really nice acoustic interludes which usually are a sign of one movement making a transition to another. Now there are a few riffs that are repeating. One is a doom riff that is kind of down trod and dark sounding setting the mood. Another is a harmonized twin lead that is just epic! It repeats 2 or 3 times throughout the song and sounds kind of upbeat. Every time I hear this part I bang my head it's just addictive.

But the guitar riffs as a whole are quite catchy. It doesn't matter if they are more in the death metal vein or not, they are all quite memorable. The drumming is pretty straight forward and I enjoy the blast beats here and there. The bass is for the most part buried behind everything else and doesn't exactly play a very prominent role which is unfortunate.

Crimson is a great album that is both progressive and melodic. EoS have created a must have album that could even be appreciated by those who don't listen to extreme music for its depth and the creativity. Do yourself a favor and find this album.

Score: 9/10
Standout Track: umm how about Crimson?!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Got some new music today!

So I went to Hastings today. It's becoming more and more painful to pick through cd racks to find anything good at stores. Hastings is I guess local to eastern Washington but it's like Barnes and Noble but they sell used books/music/movies as well. What did I get today?

Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect
Trivium - Shogun
Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
Hypocrisy - Catch 22
Darkane - Demonic Art
Dew Scented - Impact
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Darkest Hour - The Human Romance
Earth Crisis - Breed the Killers

I'm really interested in hearing BtBaM, Darkest Hour, and Darkane. I bought some of the other stuff like Dillinger and Earth Crisis hoping to find something good but I guess we'll see.

Monday, March 14, 2011

What i'm up to 3/14

Sooo I'm currently writing a review for Edge of Sanity's album Crimson. This album to me is the epitome of progressive death metal. But I'm not sure how long it's going to be though, considering it is a 40 minute song with multiple movements.

Been listening to a lot of Black Breath lately. The guys are from Seattle and it's nice to see some good bands coming from the pacific north west. I enjoy their brand of crust/hardcore blended with old school Swedish death metal.

Oops!

Made a mistake in my last post. I said most Finnish melodeath either has a strong element of doom infused into it or is folky. The bands aren't usually as folky as they seem to take more of their queues from power metal. Notice bands like Children of Bodom, Norther, and Kalmah who particularly use this style of melodic death. It seems very rare to have proper Gothenburg styled melodic death bands coming from Finland.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Clones

I wish clones would be better, but they never are. Bands like Slugathor and Warmaster are Bolt Thrower worship but they aren't nearly as satisfying. Though the Carcass clones seem to be of a better quality. I enjoy Impaled quite a bit, General Surgery do a pretty good sound of Carcass' old goregrind days as well.

Lots of bands do the Gothenburg thing but never match up to the likes of Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, and At the Gates. In fact I would LOVE to see more bands imitating the old school Gothenburg style. But we are stuck with most melodic death bands from Sweden these days being bad rip offs of Killswitch Engage. The Finnish bands are doing their own thing with the melodic death/doom thing and most of their proper melodeath is too folky for my taste.

Hopefully I can find some bands that do justice to their influences.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Mike Starr is dead

Alice In Chains' first bassist, Mike Starr, died today. They haven't said of what but I wouldn't be surprised if it was an overdose. Like Layne the dude just couldn't get over the drugs. He played on Facelift, Dirt, and I think the Sap EP, all great releases.

These guy's create incredible music but seem to have constant bad luck.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Review: Nuclear Death Terror - Total Annihilation

Band: Nuclear Death Terror
Album: Total Annihilation
Year: 2009
Genre: Crust Punk/Death Metal

Here we have a great EP from this Danish band, Nuclear Death Terror (NDT) who blend crust punk and death metal. While yes the vocal style of Adam and Cormac fit quite easily into the realm of death metal it’s the riffs and to a degree the drumming that give off the flair of crust influence.

Ok so we have 3 high quality tracks here. Immediately you can hear the crust in the riffs of Total Annihilation of the Self. The guitar riffs are also pretty catchy and have a bit of a groove to them in the vein of the old Swedish death metal bands of the early 90s. But it isn’t strange to hear crust riffs on Total Annihilation or the second song Mind Chain. Look and you will find a sound resembling Extreme Noise Terror and their album A Holocaust in Your Head.

The tracks can go from what is seemingly normal mid to fast pace, and they never let up on the speed. Whether by mistake or it’s just another influence of the band the third and final track sounds a lot like Realm of Chaos era Bolt Thrower at times, both in the drumming and riffs.

Vocally one of the guys uses a kind of shout that has a deep death metal sound to it. One of them screams a little bit higher than the other and the lower growling can seem perfectly fitting of a death metal band. Overall they are a fun mix of crust a death vocals that still sound punkish while retaining the brutality of death growls.

So this is probably what it would sound like if you mixed Extreme Noise Terror with Entombed or Bolt Thrower. You have the riffs laden with the catchy Swedish groove with clear elements of crust. The production is for the most part top notch though the vocals sometimes feel like they were put a little low in the mix. This is a nice short release and I’m sure those who enjoy Bolt Thrower’s earlier material will enjoy this band and album.

Score: 9/10
Standout Track: Any of them really