Ok so i'm not the biggest Slipknot fan but the song Snuff from All Hope Is Gone is a pretty good mellow track that caught my attention the first time I heard it on the radio.
The funny thing is I wasnt sure if it was Stone Sour or Slipknot while listening.Sure its pretty much a ballad but so is Fade to Black and that never stopped it from being a kick ass song.
While I grew out of this band a long time ago its still a good song I've enjoyed listening to lately.
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts
Monday, May 9, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Funny Quotes
You never know what readers of blogs will say and metal heads are no exception. From a reader's comment on a post about the 90s boy band Hanson doing a cover of Slipknot's Wait and Bleed as an April Fools Day prank:
"Both Hanson and Slipknot are pre-school music so it’s a fitting joke. the only difference is Hanson grew up and Slipknot still makes “YOU’RE NOT MY REAL DAD! MY LIFE SUCKS!” music."
Made me chuckle out loud when I read it lol.
"Both Hanson and Slipknot are pre-school music so it’s a fitting joke. the only difference is Hanson grew up and Slipknot still makes “YOU’RE NOT MY REAL DAD! MY LIFE SUCKS!” music."
Made me chuckle out loud when I read it lol.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Closed Minded Fans
The metal fan base seems to be one of the most closed minded subcultures in music and possibly modern human civilization. Yet at the same time strangely open minded at the same time. Wait...what?
You will see (some) metal heads talking about how its all about the music and they aren't judgmental or anything of that sort. You can then mention how you enjoy a deathcore/metalcore band a minute later and they will be calling you a faggot and telling you how shitty your taste is.
It is called personal taste for a reason ya know? I, and others, don't have to like [Insert Band Name Here] as much as you do, or even at all if we don't want to. And while I don't really listen to much Deathcore, and fewer and fewer Metalcore bands are added to my iPod as time goes on, I still cannot stand to see how the metal community consistently shits on these bands or people who enjoy them. Do you have to like As Blood Runs Black, or All Shall Perish? Not at all, like what you want I don't care. But do you have to be such a dick about not liking those kind of bands? ...No.
There is so much negativity and bad mouthing that goes on within this group that just browsing forums sometimes makes me remember why I never really sought out people who enjoy metal. No one wants to be friends with a bunch of elitist poo flinging assholes who are butthurt over other people's musical preferences.
Oh well I doubt this is going to change anytime soon, if ever. Carry on.
You will see (some) metal heads talking about how its all about the music and they aren't judgmental or anything of that sort. You can then mention how you enjoy a deathcore/metalcore band a minute later and they will be calling you a faggot and telling you how shitty your taste is.
It is called personal taste for a reason ya know? I, and others, don't have to like [Insert Band Name Here] as much as you do, or even at all if we don't want to. And while I don't really listen to much Deathcore, and fewer and fewer Metalcore bands are added to my iPod as time goes on, I still cannot stand to see how the metal community consistently shits on these bands or people who enjoy them. Do you have to like As Blood Runs Black, or All Shall Perish? Not at all, like what you want I don't care. But do you have to be such a dick about not liking those kind of bands? ...No.
There is so much negativity and bad mouthing that goes on within this group that just browsing forums sometimes makes me remember why I never really sought out people who enjoy metal. No one wants to be friends with a bunch of elitist poo flinging assholes who are butthurt over other people's musical preferences.
Oh well I doubt this is going to change anytime soon, if ever. Carry on.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Darkthrone is interesting
You know what's interesting? Taking a look at a band who has had a long career and how their new material can sound absolutely nothing like their older stuff. Darkthrone for instance! I just read a thread on the Metal Archives forums where most people posting seemed to believe the band still plays Black Metal.
I just listened to Circle the Wagons and it sounds so far from Transilvanian Hunger that a lot of people could probably unknowingly think it were a different band. Like someone in the thread mentioned, Fenriz sounds like he is doing the vocals drunk. Yeah early bands like Celtic Frost and Bathory had a lot of punk influence but I don't really see any of the faster riffing on this album that those bands used.
What a mess!
I just listened to Circle the Wagons and it sounds so far from Transilvanian Hunger that a lot of people could probably unknowingly think it were a different band. Like someone in the thread mentioned, Fenriz sounds like he is doing the vocals drunk. Yeah early bands like Celtic Frost and Bathory had a lot of punk influence but I don't really see any of the faster riffing on this album that those bands used.
What a mess!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
How Death Metal got its groove back...or not...
The whole old school revivalist DM scene has become more and more popular over the last decade they are missing one key factor: groove. Especially those bands that are trying to play in the style of old school Swedish death metal. The thing that made Entombed, Dismember, and Grave so memorable was the catchy groove they used in their riffs. Sure these new bands have the gritty production and the sunlight studios sounding buzzsaw guitars but it doesn't mean anything without that Swedish groove!
Hell even Bolt Thrower got it and they aren't even Swedish! It's funny how the new wave of old school thrash bands play exactly the same way stuff was being played in the 80s, but I think it gets a bit boring. And here these newer DM bands aren't playing the exact style of the older bands and they bore me. You just can't win!
Hell even Bolt Thrower got it and they aren't even Swedish! It's funny how the new wave of old school thrash bands play exactly the same way stuff was being played in the 80s, but I think it gets a bit boring. And here these newer DM bands aren't playing the exact style of the older bands and they bore me. You just can't win!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Whats up with...
So have you ever asked someone what kind of music they like? 50% of the time I'm sure you hear the old "I listen to everything" reply. Oh that's great so our we might have some musical taste in common!
Wrong. So you ask them "you like Death? Carcass? In Flames? Entombed? Bolt Thrower?". If they don't outright look at you like you're some kind of freak you end up getting asked who the hell these bands are.
Don't get me wrong, I don't expect someone to know some abstract unheard of kvlt one man black metal band who released a demo from his garage cause that's what fits the BM ethos. These are some of the more well known bands in the genre that most people who aren't living under a rock have heard of.
So what does one usually mean when they say they listen to "everything"? Anything top 40. "Oh yeah I listen to rock and hip hop and pop, you know everything!". Not really. I bet its very rare you find someone who actually has eclectic taste enough that metal is part of their usual listening.
Psh people and their mainstream music ;)
Wrong. So you ask them "you like Death? Carcass? In Flames? Entombed? Bolt Thrower?". If they don't outright look at you like you're some kind of freak you end up getting asked who the hell these bands are.
Don't get me wrong, I don't expect someone to know some abstract unheard of kvlt one man black metal band who released a demo from his garage cause that's what fits the BM ethos. These are some of the more well known bands in the genre that most people who aren't living under a rock have heard of.
So what does one usually mean when they say they listen to "everything"? Anything top 40. "Oh yeah I listen to rock and hip hop and pop, you know everything!". Not really. I bet its very rare you find someone who actually has eclectic taste enough that metal is part of their usual listening.
Psh people and their mainstream music ;)
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Daniel Ekeroth on Gothenburg (Melodic) Death Metal
The author of the book Swedish Death Metal (clever title isn't it?) talks about the Gothenburg style which ended up dwarfing the Stockholm scene.
It's hard to call bands like Dark Tranquillity and In Flames actual Melodic Death Metal because they are lacking in the Death Metal portion of the name. In fact they are more akin to melodic metal with harsh vocals for the most part. Anyways what ever you call them, the earlier material of both bands is pretty great!
It's hard to call bands like Dark Tranquillity and In Flames actual Melodic Death Metal because they are lacking in the Death Metal portion of the name. In fact they are more akin to melodic metal with harsh vocals for the most part. Anyways what ever you call them, the earlier material of both bands is pretty great!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Metal Archives
The Metal Archives is one of the best resources on finding information on metal bands (as defined by the site here). To put it easily lets say you want to find some info on Entombed.
You can go to MA, type Entombed into the band search. The band's profile will come up with stuff like the date they were formed, whether they are active or not, all the band's physical releases, who played on those releases and so on. What is also nice is that the site allows you to write reviews for albums so you can get opinions.
The only down side I can find is that the crowd over on the forums is generally a bit elitist but o well, such is life.
You can go to MA, type Entombed into the band search. The band's profile will come up with stuff like the date they were formed, whether they are active or not, all the band's physical releases, who played on those releases and so on. What is also nice is that the site allows you to write reviews for albums so you can get opinions.
The only down side I can find is that the crowd over on the forums is generally a bit elitist but o well, such is life.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy VDay?
Whats metal about valentines day? Here are some anti-love songs!
Nightrage - Circle of Pain
Carcass - No Love Lost
Alice In Chains - Love, Hate, Love
Nightrage - Circle of Pain
Carcass - No Love Lost
Alice In Chains - Love, Hate, Love
Friday, February 11, 2011
Gojira
Been listening to From Mars to Sirius and the lyrics are about enviromentalism and global warming. I'm far from an enviromentalist but its true that music can transcend politics and lyrical content. Good stuff but the second half of the album seems to drag a little!
One of the only French things I enjoy! ;)
One of the only French things I enjoy! ;)
Monday, January 31, 2011
Music and Gaming
These two seem to go hand in hand. And what better form of music to set the mood for shooting terrorists, building an empire bent on world conquest, or hacking orcs with your axe? Yes metal and gaming are the perfect mix.
Most specifically I would listen to Metallica's album Master of Puppets while playing Call of Duty 4 online. Songs like Battery, and Disposable Heroes were what really got me in a killing mood though! No seriously, I would usually put Battery on repeat and I would actually play better. Maybe it was the urgency of the music but I was near unstoppable when it was blasting.
I also played World of Warcraft for a while and never used to listen to music while playing. But let me tell you listening to the game's soundtrack over and over can get quite boring so eventually I would put something on. Usually it would be metalcore back in the day as I was (and to a degree) a pretty big fan back then. It never really affected my gameplay and was more background music than anything.
So! In the future find the bands/songs that suit you and get you into the game and watch the blood flow!
Now Playing: Edge of Sanity - Purgatory Afterglow - Silent
Most specifically I would listen to Metallica's album Master of Puppets while playing Call of Duty 4 online. Songs like Battery, and Disposable Heroes were what really got me in a killing mood though! No seriously, I would usually put Battery on repeat and I would actually play better. Maybe it was the urgency of the music but I was near unstoppable when it was blasting.
I also played World of Warcraft for a while and never used to listen to music while playing. But let me tell you listening to the game's soundtrack over and over can get quite boring so eventually I would put something on. Usually it would be metalcore back in the day as I was (and to a degree) a pretty big fan back then. It never really affected my gameplay and was more background music than anything.
So! In the future find the bands/songs that suit you and get you into the game and watch the blood flow!
Now Playing: Edge of Sanity - Purgatory Afterglow - Silent
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Reviews
I've been posting reviews pretty frequently and its because I have a backlog of reviews I had written on another blog I did on a band's website. I'm going to be posting those reviews here and maybe tweaking their original form so that I'm satisfied with them.
Its crazy how much improvement I've made with my reviews. I'm no professional by any means but to think when I started...whew! The reviews were LONG! I rambled on and did a track by track analysis of albums. That just isn't the way to do it! I've cut down on the length of the reviews and have cut out a lot of the fat and useless info. Not to mention instead of reviewing each track I make note of the pros and cons of the entire album while sure, mentioning tracks that interest me or...don't.
Its crazy how much improvement I've made with my reviews. I'm no professional by any means but to think when I started...whew! The reviews were LONG! I rambled on and did a track by track analysis of albums. That just isn't the way to do it! I've cut down on the length of the reviews and have cut out a lot of the fat and useless info. Not to mention instead of reviewing each track I make note of the pros and cons of the entire album while sure, mentioning tracks that interest me or...don't.
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