New tag. Just stories that I think are funny, they may not be politically correct or whatever, but they are stories that need to be laughed at.
I don't believe in global warming and don't see a big need to go green with everything. Some things, yes, but not all. Enter the Zamboni, the great invention that resurfaces hockey rinks everywhere. Well to show how great Canada is they had a green Zamboni. It broke down. Classic.
More here with video:
http://jalopnik.com/5472523/winter-olympics-electric-zamboni-fail
I would also like to add I didn't see this anywhere, until I saw it on PTI.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Music Non Stop: Iced Earth
So I have a new tag, but not too new. I think this one will replace the old Spotlight tag. This will do the same thing and highlight some of my favorite bands.
Now I have talked about Iced Earth before. I really highlighted the artwork and some of their music. Now I left off with their Something Wicked part 1 album. A lot has changed since then. Gone is The Ripper Tim Owens and back is Matt Barlow. Now I listened to Something Wicked Part 1, Framing Armageddon and I really wanted to like this album. I mean I waited years to hear the continuation from Something Wicked This Way Comes. It just wasn't working for me. The original trilogy had such a sound. The guitars going from thrash to some acoustic to an eastern feel and then throw in some piano for good measure. This felt like a mid tempo, sludgy, mess. Or on the other songs that had some speed, it felt like The Glorious Burden all over again. Plus there were so many 1 minute songs, for dramatic effect. It didn't work. On top of it Tim Owens killed it for me. I liked the Ripper on The Glorious Burden and still don't think that Matt could do the Gettysburg trilogy, but for this album it needed Matt.
So for whatever reason, after part 2 was done being recorded out goes the Ripper and back comes Barlow. I picked up the EP with one new song and 3 re-recorded songs from part 1, with Matt's vocals over the Ripper's. While the music was still whatever, hearing Matt's vocals made the songs so much better.
They then released Part 2, The Crucible of Man. It didn't make my top 10 that year, but it was better for me that part 1. Matt's vocals are Iced Earth. There were rumors of them re-recording all of part 1 with Matt and releasing a box set, but that was put on hold when the recession hit.
I am excited to hear some new Iced Earth. I doubt it will happen anytime soon though. Matt is a police officer and Jon has a new side project call Sons of Liberty. Which takes his love of the country to new heights. It's good, but it's not Iced Earth.
I will probably talk about some of thier "epic" songs later, like The Phantom of the Opera, Dante's Inferno, or Gettysburg. Some excellent writing.
----------------
Now playing: Iced Earth - Travel In Stygian
via FoxyTunes
Now I have talked about Iced Earth before. I really highlighted the artwork and some of their music. Now I left off with their Something Wicked part 1 album. A lot has changed since then. Gone is The Ripper Tim Owens and back is Matt Barlow. Now I listened to Something Wicked Part 1, Framing Armageddon and I really wanted to like this album. I mean I waited years to hear the continuation from Something Wicked This Way Comes. It just wasn't working for me. The original trilogy had such a sound. The guitars going from thrash to some acoustic to an eastern feel and then throw in some piano for good measure. This felt like a mid tempo, sludgy, mess. Or on the other songs that had some speed, it felt like The Glorious Burden all over again. Plus there were so many 1 minute songs, for dramatic effect. It didn't work. On top of it Tim Owens killed it for me. I liked the Ripper on The Glorious Burden and still don't think that Matt could do the Gettysburg trilogy, but for this album it needed Matt.
So for whatever reason, after part 2 was done being recorded out goes the Ripper and back comes Barlow. I picked up the EP with one new song and 3 re-recorded songs from part 1, with Matt's vocals over the Ripper's. While the music was still whatever, hearing Matt's vocals made the songs so much better.
They then released Part 2, The Crucible of Man. It didn't make my top 10 that year, but it was better for me that part 1. Matt's vocals are Iced Earth. There were rumors of them re-recording all of part 1 with Matt and releasing a box set, but that was put on hold when the recession hit.
I am excited to hear some new Iced Earth. I doubt it will happen anytime soon though. Matt is a police officer and Jon has a new side project call Sons of Liberty. Which takes his love of the country to new heights. It's good, but it's not Iced Earth.
I will probably talk about some of thier "epic" songs later, like The Phantom of the Opera, Dante's Inferno, or Gettysburg. Some excellent writing.
----------------
Now playing: Iced Earth - Travel In Stygian
via FoxyTunes
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Thoughts Without Words: Really???
So I haven't really talked much about my classes this year because after the crappy year I had last year, I couldn't find much to complain about. In fact after reading some fellow bloggers, I really can't complain at all.
So I will share an amusing story from today's 5th period class. Now 5th period is after lunch, so my TA is stamping homework while I am starting my lesson. I walk over to her to ask her how many people didn't do it or what not. She tells me about this kid, I will call him Copier, who actually tells her that he is copying someone's homework, I'll call that kid Freshman. She tells me and I send them both up to the office for cheating. Ok, so my TA makes the comment we were all thinking..."how stupid can you be? why didn't you just copy at lunch?" I have mentioned on other blogs how out of control copying is at our school which is why I have cut my homework to only 10% of their overall grade.
So Copier gets a Saturday detention and is all sad. Freshman comes back and I read his referral. It has his conversation with Cheater on it. I quote;
Copier: "Hey can I copy your homework?"
Freshman: "Sure", but I didn't know he would actually copy it. Classic Freshman moment.
So that brought a smile to my face, but then with 15 minutes left I catch Copier with his cell phone out between his legs. I ask if he was texting, he said no. So I said, well your phone isn't supposed to be out. Let me check to see if you sent anything, if you didn't I won't do anything. He tells me that he was texting (duh), but it was 5 minutes ago so it doesn't count. So I sent him up again.
Classic.
----------------
Now playing: As I Lay Dying - Nothing Left
via FoxyTunes
So I will share an amusing story from today's 5th period class. Now 5th period is after lunch, so my TA is stamping homework while I am starting my lesson. I walk over to her to ask her how many people didn't do it or what not. She tells me about this kid, I will call him Copier, who actually tells her that he is copying someone's homework, I'll call that kid Freshman. She tells me and I send them both up to the office for cheating. Ok, so my TA makes the comment we were all thinking..."how stupid can you be? why didn't you just copy at lunch?" I have mentioned on other blogs how out of control copying is at our school which is why I have cut my homework to only 10% of their overall grade.
So Copier gets a Saturday detention and is all sad. Freshman comes back and I read his referral. It has his conversation with Cheater on it. I quote;
Copier: "Hey can I copy your homework?"
Freshman: "Sure", but I didn't know he would actually copy it. Classic Freshman moment.
So that brought a smile to my face, but then with 15 minutes left I catch Copier with his cell phone out between his legs. I ask if he was texting, he said no. So I said, well your phone isn't supposed to be out. Let me check to see if you sent anything, if you didn't I won't do anything. He tells me that he was texting (duh), but it was 5 minutes ago so it doesn't count. So I sent him up again.
Classic.
----------------
Now playing: As I Lay Dying - Nothing Left
via FoxyTunes
Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Sun Always Shines on T.V.: Better Off Ted
Ok, this is probably one of my favorite shows on TV right now. I happened upon it one night while I was waiting for Scrubs and found myself laughing pretty hard. In a nutshell, it's about this guy who works at a company that builds products for war or the military. The show follows Ted (duh) and 4 others, so it is a small cast. The humor is quick and smart. There are a ton of references to science fiction, which I really enjoy.
The last episode had an interaction between Linda (the nice girl) and some head of a department at the company. Anyway, Veronica (boss and mean) and her try to get him to change his mind on the company's policy on fundraising, but he won't Linda tells the man she isn't leaving, Veronica says things that the Emperor himself said during Luke's battle against Vader. The classic line of "only your hatred can defeat him" was used. Only sci-fi fans would appreciate that line and let me tell you...I did.
Unfortunately, it appears as though Better Off Ted is going to be cancelled. It is going through the same fate as Scrubs, showing an entire season in a month...not good.
It's a shame that this show will only have 26 episodes under its belt when it is gone because it will never make it to syndication. This is a must buy for me on dvd.
here's a sample
The last episode had an interaction between Linda (the nice girl) and some head of a department at the company. Anyway, Veronica (boss and mean) and her try to get him to change his mind on the company's policy on fundraising, but he won't Linda tells the man she isn't leaving, Veronica says things that the Emperor himself said during Luke's battle against Vader. The classic line of "only your hatred can defeat him" was used. Only sci-fi fans would appreciate that line and let me tell you...I did.
Unfortunately, it appears as though Better Off Ted is going to be cancelled. It is going through the same fate as Scrubs, showing an entire season in a month...not good.
It's a shame that this show will only have 26 episodes under its belt when it is gone because it will never make it to syndication. This is a must buy for me on dvd.
here's a sample
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Sun Always Shines on T.V.: Scrubs - Med School
So way back in May I talked about Scrubs' season (series at the time) finale. There was little chance of a spin off because Zach Braff (J.D.) had said he was moving on. Well, something happened and Scrubs Season 9 was a go.
I was interested in this because I read some interviews about just how much the show was changing. Gone was Carla, the Janitor, Ted, and for most of the season J.D. and Elliot. How could a show that was built on an ensemble cast survive? Oh I forgot the biggest change, the hospital was gone and now they were professors at med school.
I mentioned last May about the dangers of continuing a show after the main start left ala Spin City. It's a hard act to follow. They learned by changing the setting and the shows creator tried to change the name to Scrubs: Med School. ABC said no, but on the title screen after it flashes Scrubs, med school does appear in the corner.
So what is the new show like? Well the new show focuses on Lucy, Drew, and Cole. Jo (from season 8) returns and does a great job. I would have liked to have seen the other interns from season 8 return (Sunny does show up in one episode), but they rebooted completely. Watching the first 4 -5 episodes is painful, it was like watching Spin City all over again. I couldn't get past no Janitor or Ted. Even the new building distracted me. The writers did a nice job of establishing the new characters and I think that the only one that worked right away was Drew. He reminds me of a young Dr. Cox at times. Lucy is supposed to be a combination of J.D. and Elliot. While Drew is totally new, a white kid who thinks he cool with his ghetto slang. It was really annoying at first, but now it works. Unfortunately, I feel like they made J.D. and Turk even more "flamboyant".
After the first few "awkward" episodes, the show is starting to hit its stride. The last 3 episodes are great. Watching Lucy realize she likes Cole was classic Scrubs. Having Cox's wife, Jordan, return was great as well. I really think this show can be a success like Spin City was for the next 3-4 years. Unfortunately, ABC is showing the entire season in like 5 weeks. That's right, an entire season in a month - month and a half. As I write this, there are only like 4 more new episodes left. I hope it gets another season to get going, but I don't think it will.
I was interested in this because I read some interviews about just how much the show was changing. Gone was Carla, the Janitor, Ted, and for most of the season J.D. and Elliot. How could a show that was built on an ensemble cast survive? Oh I forgot the biggest change, the hospital was gone and now they were professors at med school.
I mentioned last May about the dangers of continuing a show after the main start left ala Spin City. It's a hard act to follow. They learned by changing the setting and the shows creator tried to change the name to Scrubs: Med School. ABC said no, but on the title screen after it flashes Scrubs, med school does appear in the corner.
So what is the new show like? Well the new show focuses on Lucy, Drew, and Cole. Jo (from season 8) returns and does a great job. I would have liked to have seen the other interns from season 8 return (Sunny does show up in one episode), but they rebooted completely. Watching the first 4 -5 episodes is painful, it was like watching Spin City all over again. I couldn't get past no Janitor or Ted. Even the new building distracted me. The writers did a nice job of establishing the new characters and I think that the only one that worked right away was Drew. He reminds me of a young Dr. Cox at times. Lucy is supposed to be a combination of J.D. and Elliot. While Drew is totally new, a white kid who thinks he cool with his ghetto slang. It was really annoying at first, but now it works. Unfortunately, I feel like they made J.D. and Turk even more "flamboyant".
After the first few "awkward" episodes, the show is starting to hit its stride. The last 3 episodes are great. Watching Lucy realize she likes Cole was classic Scrubs. Having Cox's wife, Jordan, return was great as well. I really think this show can be a success like Spin City was for the next 3-4 years. Unfortunately, ABC is showing the entire season in like 5 weeks. That's right, an entire season in a month - month and a half. As I write this, there are only like 4 more new episodes left. I hope it gets another season to get going, but I don't think it will.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Futureal: 2010 albums
New year...new tag. Futureal tags will be for predicting things, like upcoming albums, shows, or whatever hasn't happened yet.
So with 2009 closing and 2010 just starting, what am I looking forward to? Well here is a quick "wish list" if you will.
Anthrax: they were supposed to release Worship Music in October, but dumped there lead singer, Dan Nelson. From the videos I saw, the new album was a lot heavier than anything they had done before... think Testament's Low through The Gathering (yes include Demonic). Supposedly they are back with John Bush, which is great, but I hope they don't sacrifice the music.
As I Lay Dying: their albums have gotten better with each release. An Ocean Between Us was great. No filler at all. I don't want to have too high of hopes, but I already do. I really want this one to be great. It is one of those things you try to avoid, but like I said this one is way up there for me.
Fear Factory: Dino is back and from what I have heard it is classic FF. I thought the last album was too much of a metal rocker type album instead of industrial metal.
Beyond the Embrace: maybe? Their first two albums are great, but then nothing. On their Myspace page, there was a hint of a new album this year. Crossing my fingers here.
Trivium: no brainer here. Shogun was great and I hope the follow up is a lot better than The Crusade was to Ascendancy.
Into Eternity: haven't heard anything, but I am hoping for a new one from these guys.
All That Remains: see above.
In Flames: A Sense of Purpose was ok. That's it. Come Clarity was great. Maybe they rushed with A Sense of Purpose who knows. I am hoping for something like CC or even Reroute to Remain.
That's about it. I think this should be a good year. Last year was so slow until June or July then it got crazy. Hopefully, I won't have to wait until June to hear something great.
----------------
Now playing: Brides of Destruction - Life
via FoxyTunes
So with 2009 closing and 2010 just starting, what am I looking forward to? Well here is a quick "wish list" if you will.
Anthrax: they were supposed to release Worship Music in October, but dumped there lead singer, Dan Nelson. From the videos I saw, the new album was a lot heavier than anything they had done before... think Testament's Low through The Gathering (yes include Demonic). Supposedly they are back with John Bush, which is great, but I hope they don't sacrifice the music.
As I Lay Dying: their albums have gotten better with each release. An Ocean Between Us was great. No filler at all. I don't want to have too high of hopes, but I already do. I really want this one to be great. It is one of those things you try to avoid, but like I said this one is way up there for me.
Fear Factory: Dino is back and from what I have heard it is classic FF. I thought the last album was too much of a metal rocker type album instead of industrial metal.
Beyond the Embrace: maybe? Their first two albums are great, but then nothing. On their Myspace page, there was a hint of a new album this year. Crossing my fingers here.
Trivium: no brainer here. Shogun was great and I hope the follow up is a lot better than The Crusade was to Ascendancy.
Into Eternity: haven't heard anything, but I am hoping for a new one from these guys.
All That Remains: see above.
In Flames: A Sense of Purpose was ok. That's it. Come Clarity was great. Maybe they rushed with A Sense of Purpose who knows. I am hoping for something like CC or even Reroute to Remain.
That's about it. I think this should be a good year. Last year was so slow until June or July then it got crazy. Hopefully, I won't have to wait until June to hear something great.
----------------
Now playing: Brides of Destruction - Life
via FoxyTunes
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Who Decides: Top Albums of the Decade
Ok, I wasn't planning on doing a list of albums of the decade, but I saw it somewhere and figured why not? I tried to keep it to 50, and the only real stipulation I had was that I could only have at most 2 albums per band. The hardest album I had to eliminate was In Flames' Come Clarity.
**UPDATED 1-5-10**
I decided to take off The Crown's Deathrace King because I needed some space to add, Borknagar's Epic, Bruce Dickinson's Greatest Hits, and Brides of Destruction's Here Comes the Brides.
The list in alphabetical order;
All That Remains: The Fall of Ideals (06); Overcome (08)
Animals As Leaders: Animals As Leaders (09)
Anthrax: Stomp 442 (01); We've Come For You All (03)
Arch Enemy: Manifesto of Arch Enemy (09); The Root of All Evil (09)
As I Lay Dying: An Ocean Between Us (07)
Beyond The Embrace: Against the Elements (02)
Biomechanical: Empires of the World (05)
Blaze: Silicon Messiah (00)
Bullet For My Valentine: Scream, Aim, Fire (08)
The Crown: Deathrace King (00); Crowned in Terror (02)
Deadlock: Wolves (07)
DevilDriver: The Fury of Our Maker's Hand (05), The Last Kind Words (07)
Halford: Crucible (02)
The Haunted: rEVOLVEr (04), The Dead Eye (06)
Helloween: The Dark Ride (00)
The Human Abstract: Nocturne (06)
Hypocrisy: Virus (05)
In Flames: Clayman (00), Reroute to Remain (02)
Into Eternity: Buried in Oblivion (04), The Scattering of Ashes (06)
Killswitch Engage: Alive or Just Breathing (02), End of Heartache (04)
Lacuna Coil: Comalies (02), Karmacode (06)
Limp Bizkit: The Unquestionable Truth part 1 (05)
Machine Head: The Blackening (07)
Megadeth: The World Needs a Hero (01), Endgame (09)
Mercenary: 11 Dreams (04), Architect of Lies (08)
Metallica: Death Magnetic (08)
Nevermore: Dead Heart in a Dead World (00), This Godless Endeavor (05)
Nightrage: Descent into Chaos (05), A New Disease is Born (07)
Nightwish: Once (04)
Protest the Hero: Kezia (05)
Shadows Fall: The Art of Balance (02), The War Within (04)
Soilwork: A Predator's Portrait (01), Natural Born Chaos (02)
Sum 41: Chuck (04)
Susperia: Unlimited (04), Cut From Stone (07)
Testament: First Strike Still Deadly (01), The Formation of Damnation (08)
Trivium: Ascendancy (05), Shogun (08)
That's my list. Some cheating going on by listing greatest hits, but oh well.
Side note, this is post #199, so the new year will bring #200 nice.
**UPDATED 1-5-10**
I decided to take off The Crown's Deathrace King because I needed some space to add, Borknagar's Epic, Bruce Dickinson's Greatest Hits, and Brides of Destruction's Here Comes the Brides.
The list in alphabetical order;
All That Remains: The Fall of Ideals (06); Overcome (08)
Animals As Leaders: Animals As Leaders (09)
Anthrax: Stomp 442 (01); We've Come For You All (03)
Arch Enemy: Manifesto of Arch Enemy (09); The Root of All Evil (09)
As I Lay Dying: An Ocean Between Us (07)
Beyond The Embrace: Against the Elements (02)
Biomechanical: Empires of the World (05)
Blaze: Silicon Messiah (00)
Bullet For My Valentine: Scream, Aim, Fire (08)
The Crown: Deathrace King (00); Crowned in Terror (02)
Deadlock: Wolves (07)
DevilDriver: The Fury of Our Maker's Hand (05), The Last Kind Words (07)
Halford: Crucible (02)
The Haunted: rEVOLVEr (04), The Dead Eye (06)
Helloween: The Dark Ride (00)
The Human Abstract: Nocturne (06)
Hypocrisy: Virus (05)
In Flames: Clayman (00), Reroute to Remain (02)
Into Eternity: Buried in Oblivion (04), The Scattering of Ashes (06)
Killswitch Engage: Alive or Just Breathing (02), End of Heartache (04)
Lacuna Coil: Comalies (02), Karmacode (06)
Limp Bizkit: The Unquestionable Truth part 1 (05)
Machine Head: The Blackening (07)
Megadeth: The World Needs a Hero (01), Endgame (09)
Mercenary: 11 Dreams (04), Architect of Lies (08)
Metallica: Death Magnetic (08)
Nevermore: Dead Heart in a Dead World (00), This Godless Endeavor (05)
Nightrage: Descent into Chaos (05), A New Disease is Born (07)
Nightwish: Once (04)
Protest the Hero: Kezia (05)
Shadows Fall: The Art of Balance (02), The War Within (04)
Soilwork: A Predator's Portrait (01), Natural Born Chaos (02)
Sum 41: Chuck (04)
Susperia: Unlimited (04), Cut From Stone (07)
Testament: First Strike Still Deadly (01), The Formation of Damnation (08)
Trivium: Ascendancy (05), Shogun (08)
That's my list. Some cheating going on by listing greatest hits, but oh well.
Side note, this is post #199, so the new year will bring #200 nice.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Crazy: Imagination Movers...227 times?!?!?!?
Now I haven't been on here in awhile...duh. I still update my ipod and LastFm still tracks my tracks played. I knew that I have been listening to the Movers a lot lately with my kids in the car, but 227 times in a week?!?!?!?! Wow that's all I can say.
BTW, Imagination Movers are currently my guilty pleasure. They write great catchy songs lasting about 2 minutes each. I will try and do a write up on them soon. I am not ashamed to have them over there, but 227 times is a lot. Plus I don't think they fit in with the type of music on my banner.
BTW, Imagination Movers are currently my guilty pleasure. They write great catchy songs lasting about 2 minutes each. I will try and do a write up on them soon. I am not ashamed to have them over there, but 227 times is a lot. Plus I don't think they fit in with the type of music on my banner.
Who Decides: Top 10 Albums of the Year
Ok, so another year is coming to an end, so here is my top 10 metal albums of the year. I will try to keep it to ten, unlike last year. This year started off very slow for me. Nothing really caught my eye, until around June or so. I talked about it back then, and I said I doubt if any of those albums would make my final top 10...and well let's see.
Before we get to the list, I took out Arch Enemy's Root of All Evil (even though it is a great album) because it was just re-recording old songs with a new singer. If I could have 11 albums, I would have probably thrown in The Sorrow's Origin of the Storm. That was a classic metalcore album in the same vein as Killswitch Engage. Onto the list;
#10 - Threat Signal: Vigilance; much better than the Arkaea project which was Fear Factory light. This album has lost a lot of the FF influence and has gone for more of a straight thrash approach. The solos on this album as killer, check out The Beginning of the End for a sample.
# 9 - DevilDriver: Pray for Villains; a big let down overall from The Last Kind Words. I talke about this earlier in the year as well. A lot of solid songs, but overall just doesn't pack that punch that The Last Kind Words had. Check out Waiting for November, Bitter Pill, Teach Me to Whisper, and the title track.
# 8 - Evita: Minutes & Miles; the surprise of the year for me. Evita plays some crazy progressive metalcore music not unlike Protest the Hero. It's very good and deserved to be on this list. All of their songs are good, but if you check out one listen to Willing to Wake it's a good sample of the album.
# 7 - Dirge Within: Force Fed Lies; when I first hear this album I thought it was DevilDriver. Seriously, at times the lead singer sounds so similar it's eerie. Anyway, if DD would have put out this album DD would be higher up on the list. Musically, you know what you are getting. They pull out some nice solos especially on Complacency (2+ minutes of trading off solos).
# 6 - Nightrage: Wearing a Martyr's Crown; I listened to this album I didn't think it would make my top 10. It was lacking something for me, but over the last few months it has caught on big time. Descent into Chaos was a classic for me and evern though this doesn't beat that album it is solid. The guitar work is unmistakably Nightrage and the new singer does a fine job. He doesn't stand out like Tompa or Jimmie, but he works. Check out A Grim Struggle or the title track for a good feel of the album.
# 5 - Animals As Leaders: Animals As Leaders; did I say Evita was my surprise of the year? This is. First off, it's instrumental (something I really don't like). The guitarist, Tosin Abasi, is great. The music goes from thrash to metalcore to eletronic to acoustic. It is a wild ride to be sure. Check out CAFO.
# 4 - Megadeth: Endgame; it's Megadeth, it's better than their last album, and dare I say better than Death Magnetic? Mustaine brought his A game this time and wrote some killer riffs for this album. So why isn't it higher? Probably because his vocals are wearing on me. I can't explain it, but Dave's singing has gone downhill a bit. This Day We Fight and Headcrusher could have easily been on R.I.P. check them out.
# 3 - Susperia - Attitude; once again Susperia releases an album that is heavy, catchy, and has great musicianship. I can't add anything else, if you liked Carved in Stone or Unlimited you will like this one. All the songs are great. Check out The Urge, Sick Bastard (with Dimmu Borgir vocalist Shagrath), or Live My Dreams (with Testament vocalist Chuck Billy).
# 2 - Killswitch Engage: Killswitch Engage; I have already talked about this one and Shadows Fall's latest albums awhile ago. So I won't add anything else to this. Check out the entire album, definitely worth it.
# 1 - Shadows Fall: Retribution; like KsE I already talked about it, so I won't repeat anything. This album renewed my faith in SF. The guitar work is top notch and memorable. I can't find anything to complain about on this album.
So why is SF #1 and KsE #2? The difference is minimal. I would probably say the solos put Shadows Fall #1, even though KsE has better choruses. I was very happy to see two of my favorite bands rebound from sub-par albums and step up.
That's it. I want to try and do weekly postings next year. So let's see how that goes. I want to talk about the new Scrubs, The Middle, and some movie talk. Cross your fingers for a fun 2010.
Before we get to the list, I took out Arch Enemy's Root of All Evil (even though it is a great album) because it was just re-recording old songs with a new singer. If I could have 11 albums, I would have probably thrown in The Sorrow's Origin of the Storm. That was a classic metalcore album in the same vein as Killswitch Engage. Onto the list;
#10 - Threat Signal: Vigilance; much better than the Arkaea project which was Fear Factory light. This album has lost a lot of the FF influence and has gone for more of a straight thrash approach. The solos on this album as killer, check out The Beginning of the End for a sample.
# 9 - DevilDriver: Pray for Villains; a big let down overall from The Last Kind Words. I talke about this earlier in the year as well. A lot of solid songs, but overall just doesn't pack that punch that The Last Kind Words had. Check out Waiting for November, Bitter Pill, Teach Me to Whisper, and the title track.
# 8 - Evita: Minutes & Miles; the surprise of the year for me. Evita plays some crazy progressive metalcore music not unlike Protest the Hero. It's very good and deserved to be on this list. All of their songs are good, but if you check out one listen to Willing to Wake it's a good sample of the album.
# 7 - Dirge Within: Force Fed Lies; when I first hear this album I thought it was DevilDriver. Seriously, at times the lead singer sounds so similar it's eerie. Anyway, if DD would have put out this album DD would be higher up on the list. Musically, you know what you are getting. They pull out some nice solos especially on Complacency (2+ minutes of trading off solos).
# 6 - Nightrage: Wearing a Martyr's Crown; I listened to this album I didn't think it would make my top 10. It was lacking something for me, but over the last few months it has caught on big time. Descent into Chaos was a classic for me and evern though this doesn't beat that album it is solid. The guitar work is unmistakably Nightrage and the new singer does a fine job. He doesn't stand out like Tompa or Jimmie, but he works. Check out A Grim Struggle or the title track for a good feel of the album.
# 5 - Animals As Leaders: Animals As Leaders; did I say Evita was my surprise of the year? This is. First off, it's instrumental (something I really don't like). The guitarist, Tosin Abasi, is great. The music goes from thrash to metalcore to eletronic to acoustic. It is a wild ride to be sure. Check out CAFO.
# 4 - Megadeth: Endgame; it's Megadeth, it's better than their last album, and dare I say better than Death Magnetic? Mustaine brought his A game this time and wrote some killer riffs for this album. So why isn't it higher? Probably because his vocals are wearing on me. I can't explain it, but Dave's singing has gone downhill a bit. This Day We Fight and Headcrusher could have easily been on R.I.P. check them out.
# 3 - Susperia - Attitude; once again Susperia releases an album that is heavy, catchy, and has great musicianship. I can't add anything else, if you liked Carved in Stone or Unlimited you will like this one. All the songs are great. Check out The Urge, Sick Bastard (with Dimmu Borgir vocalist Shagrath), or Live My Dreams (with Testament vocalist Chuck Billy).
# 2 - Killswitch Engage: Killswitch Engage; I have already talked about this one and Shadows Fall's latest albums awhile ago. So I won't add anything else to this. Check out the entire album, definitely worth it.
# 1 - Shadows Fall: Retribution; like KsE I already talked about it, so I won't repeat anything. This album renewed my faith in SF. The guitar work is top notch and memorable. I can't find anything to complain about on this album.
So why is SF #1 and KsE #2? The difference is minimal. I would probably say the solos put Shadows Fall #1, even though KsE has better choruses. I was very happy to see two of my favorite bands rebound from sub-par albums and step up.
That's it. I want to try and do weekly postings next year. So let's see how that goes. I want to talk about the new Scrubs, The Middle, and some movie talk. Cross your fingers for a fun 2010.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Return of the King: New England Thrash Metal
So it's been over 2 months since my last post...thanks Webwasher. A lot of great albums have come out during that time; Megadeth, Nightrage, DevilDriver, Shadows Fall, and Killswitch Engage. For this post, I am going to focus in on the last two.
Now I put KsE & Shadows Fall in the same category of New England Thrash Metal, simply cause they (All That Remains, too) all sort of came out during the same time & are from the same area. On top of that, the members have done projects together (Overcast) or have been in other bands (Phil in Shadows Fall before Brian).
Both of their last albums were very unispired. It was like they were going through the motions. KsE's Daylight Dies was ok, nothing special. It was like you we thinking "Well it's sounds just like AoJB & EoH, but not as memorable." With Shadows Fall's last one Threads of Life, you kind of felt they took the safe way out. Meaning, they took their ideas from The War Within and softened them up a bit. Tried very hard to be catchy and well it was just alright. Once again, nothing memorable.
Fast forward to 2009 and both albums are great "return to form" type albums. In fact, even though the year isn't out I can pretty much guarentee that one of these albums will be #1, that's how good they are.
Let's start with Shadows Fall first. They went back and sped up the music a bit and didn't try to make a catchy song. So what happened? Some of the best songs since Art of Balance. Add of to that the guitar work on this album is fantastic. You can YouTube most of the album to hear it, I would recommend...well everything. War has a great chorus, Embrace Annihilation has an awesome solo, A Public Execution is a geat work out song with a chorus that needs to be heard. I can go on about every song, that's how solid this thing. Throw in some guest vocals by Randy Blythe and you have a winner.
Killswitch Engage's latest was a sort of make or break album for me. Alive or Just Breathing and End of Heartache are classics in the metalcore genre. In fact, I put AoJB in my top 5 metal albums of all time...yeah it's that good. So with this album, they brought on board a co-producer for the first time and it really pays off. With Daylight Dies it seemed so formulated; verse, clean slow chorus, breakdown, repeat. With Killswitch Engage, the songs are thrashier and while some of the slow clean choruses are there, they don't seem to distract. Add in the fact, the first song has a solo (they don't do solos normally). That's when it hits you that this isn't going to sound like Daylight Dies. The intro solo in Take Me Away is so good it makes you wonder why these guys don't do more of it. Anyway, like Shadows Fall, there isn't a lot of filler on this album. This album is a great continuation of what was established on AoJB & EoH.
I was worried about these albums since their last ones were so mediocre. Both albums met and exceeded my expectations. When I was doing my top 10 list in June and I saw both of these albums coming out, I was hoping they would make the top 10, now they will be topping the list. Why couldn't DevilDriver's latest have been this good?
Now I put KsE & Shadows Fall in the same category of New England Thrash Metal, simply cause they (All That Remains, too) all sort of came out during the same time & are from the same area. On top of that, the members have done projects together (Overcast) or have been in other bands (Phil in Shadows Fall before Brian).
Both of their last albums were very unispired. It was like they were going through the motions. KsE's Daylight Dies was ok, nothing special. It was like you we thinking "Well it's sounds just like AoJB & EoH, but not as memorable." With Shadows Fall's last one Threads of Life, you kind of felt they took the safe way out. Meaning, they took their ideas from The War Within and softened them up a bit. Tried very hard to be catchy and well it was just alright. Once again, nothing memorable.
Fast forward to 2009 and both albums are great "return to form" type albums. In fact, even though the year isn't out I can pretty much guarentee that one of these albums will be #1, that's how good they are.
Let's start with Shadows Fall first. They went back and sped up the music a bit and didn't try to make a catchy song. So what happened? Some of the best songs since Art of Balance. Add of to that the guitar work on this album is fantastic. You can YouTube most of the album to hear it, I would recommend...well everything. War has a great chorus, Embrace Annihilation has an awesome solo, A Public Execution is a geat work out song with a chorus that needs to be heard. I can go on about every song, that's how solid this thing. Throw in some guest vocals by Randy Blythe and you have a winner.
Killswitch Engage's latest was a sort of make or break album for me. Alive or Just Breathing and End of Heartache are classics in the metalcore genre. In fact, I put AoJB in my top 5 metal albums of all time...yeah it's that good. So with this album, they brought on board a co-producer for the first time and it really pays off. With Daylight Dies it seemed so formulated; verse, clean slow chorus, breakdown, repeat. With Killswitch Engage, the songs are thrashier and while some of the slow clean choruses are there, they don't seem to distract. Add in the fact, the first song has a solo (they don't do solos normally). That's when it hits you that this isn't going to sound like Daylight Dies. The intro solo in Take Me Away is so good it makes you wonder why these guys don't do more of it. Anyway, like Shadows Fall, there isn't a lot of filler on this album. This album is a great continuation of what was established on AoJB & EoH.
I was worried about these albums since their last ones were so mediocre. Both albums met and exceeded my expectations. When I was doing my top 10 list in June and I saw both of these albums coming out, I was hoping they would make the top 10, now they will be topping the list. Why couldn't DevilDriver's latest have been this good?
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