This Calling: Psalm 121:7-8

Psalm 121:7-8 () 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. #Bible http://j.mp/gszQsu&name=Psalm+121:7-8+

Tirades of Truth: Iced Earth - Dystopia

So let me be up front of my fondness of Iced Earth. Before Shadows Fall, Trivium, Killswitch Engage, and all the other bands, there was Iced Earth. They were the first metal band I got into after the classic metal bands like Metallica and Megadeth. In fact, it was because of their tour opening for Megadeth that I heard of Iced Earth.

My first Iced Earth album was Something Wicked This Way Comes, which I picked up mainly because of the album artwork. I was blown away by both the music and vocals. The guitar riffs were totally amazing. I couldn't believe how heavy they were. It was like Iron Maiden on steroids, instead of Harris' galloping bass, we had a guitar doing the same thing...awesome. Then of course were the vocals. Matt Barlow's vocals were incredible. They could go heavy, but not anything as raw as John Bush or James Hetfield, but more of a powerful heavy. Of course, the crowning moment of the album was the Something Wicked Trilogy. I knew I found a great band.

I picked up most of their back catalog and was impressed by everything I heard. Jon Schaffer's guitar playing dominated every song and when you put Barlow's vocals on top of it, it was magical. Well as we all know, Barlow left the band after 9-11 to become a police officer. He was replaced by Tim Owens of Judas Priest fame. They released a couple of albums with Ripper and they just didn't feel like Iced Earth. The Glorious Burden was solid, but mainly because it was a concept album and it was totally different than anything they had done before. However, when they started to do the double album based on Something Wicked, I was worried. And with good reason. Ripper just wasn't Barlow. He was good, in fact Ten Thousand Strong is the best song off of Framing Armageddon and it's so good that I don't even think that Barlow could do it justice.

Long story somewhat shorter, exit Ripper enter Barlow (again). The second album of the Something Wicked story didn't suffer from the vocals, but from the music. Which in hindsight was present on the last 3 albums going back to The Glorious Burden. Schaffer went for this mid paced grandiose sound. And while it worked for The Glorious Burden, it didn't work for the other albums. Sure there were faster songs, but they were far and few.


So exit Barlow (again) and enter Stu Block. Now both vocalists were in my top 10 list years ago and after this album, Stu probably moved up a couple of notches. The first thing I noticed about Dystopia was how much Stu sounds like Barlow in his mid-range. Schaffer was quoted about finding Stu's mid-range vocals and I put it off as hype, but he definitely found something he didn't have with Into Eternity. Stu could do the death screams, clean, and Halford-esque screams, but this new mid-range is impressive...most impressive.


He doesn't sound like a Barlow clone, you can tell subtle differences between the two, yet he fits the music better than Ripper did. Speaking of Ripper, Stu also goes into his Halford/Ripper vocals during the album (Equilibrium, Boiling Point). When Ripper did it on his two albums it bothered me, here it works. The only thing I can tell is that he doesn't stay high forever, just for a moment, then it's back to the mid-range.

So what about the music? Well the album starts off with the title-track and the first thing I noticed was the return of the classic galloping guitar. Now there are some mid-paced songs on here, End of Innocence, Anguish of the Youth, Anthem for example, but they work. Kind of like the way Melancholy worked on Something Wicked, musically it's a great song.

The thrash songs are here as well. Boiling Point, Days of Rage bring back memories of early Iced Earth. Sure the songs are kind of recycled, but they still work. When I listen to Days of Rage, I get Disciples of the Lie in my head which then turns into Violate. Maybe it's the guitar work and pacing of the song, but they sort of all blend together, which is fine for me.


This album definitely threw me for a loop, almost the way Blaze Bayley's & Charred Walls of the Damned's last albums did. Out of no where a classic metal album comes out and it shows me that down inside I am still a classic metal guy. This thing is a definite "return to form" album for the band, easily the best thing since they put out Horror Show. Where would I rank this? It's not their best, but top 5? Probably.

What does this do to my Top 10 list? Throws a huge wrench into it. I still don't think it can top Trivium's album, but heck who would have said Blaze Bayley would have made number one on my Top 10 last year?

Right Now: seriously

Wow...sure has been awhile since I posted. So a quick update;

• School is whatever. I will say that I have had more parent conferences in the first 8 weeks than I did all of last year combined...seriously.
• Alot of freshmen...seriously.
• I thought I had the top 5 albums figured out and then Iced Earth came out with an album that is blowing my mind right now...seriously.
• That's it...I haven't posted in a long time because everytime I started too, I got depressed at the story I was going to post...seriously.

I will leave you with this video I saw weeks ago, for all of the Star Wars fans out there.

classic

Music Non Stop: new (sort of) Iced Earth

I am a pretty big fan of Iced Earth. They were one of the first bands I started listening too outside of Metallica & Megadeth. Matt Barlow's vocals were a huge part of that. He sounded like Paul Stanley (KISS) at times. He was the voice of Iced Earth, heck he's #3 on my top 10 vocalist list. After 9-11 he decided he should do something and quit the band to be a police officer. He was replaced by Tim Owens, who is a great vocalist, but it didn't fit Iced Earth. So Barlow came back to record another album, but realized he couldn't do it anymore. So enter Stu Block of Into Eternity fame. Now Stu has a pretty killer range. I listed him on my top 10 vocalists awhile back too.

I was interested on how he would fit into Iced Earth...well wonder no more. They re-recorded Dante's Inferno with Stu on vocals and I have to admit it's pretty good. He sounds like a better fit than Tim Owens ever did. His vocals fit the music naturally, sometimes he sounds just like Barlow. I will say that he adds a little bit of the "death grunts" in there, and it fits perfectly. He doesn't go cookie monster, but lower than Barlow did. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. Now if we can just get some of those classic riffs from Night of the Stormrider and Burnt Offerings...


by the way this is a 17+ minute song...enjoy the ride.

Thoughts Without Words: Are you kidding me??? Again

I can't believe I am doing this again, but why do movie executives always want to change something that is fine the way it is? Seriously, we have seen it with Wonder Woman, Spider- Man, X-Men and many others and now it has come to the iconic Superman. Now I already discussed his new costumes in the relaunch of DC Comics, and I even pointed out the new suit. But there was one thing I didn't discuss that post. And that is the lack of the red undies. In the promo picture it was hard to tell if they were on or missing because of the lighting. Now it is official...they changed one of the most iconic and most recognizable costumes of all time to this

*sigh* when will they learn to leave things alone? The cape is gone too, but since there have been pictures of him with a cape I am assuming it's missing for a reason. And what's up with the stripes down the side? What was wrong with the original design? Now since I don't want to be too negative I will add two things; first the hair is better than it was in the promo pic and second Henry Cavill looks like Superman...his arms are huge! Is it enough to make me look away from the stripes and missing red trunks? We'll see, but I'm gonna say...no.

Video Killed the Radio Star: Thank God it wasn't a terrorist attack...

This is just too perfect. Wolf Blitzer is interviewing a man right after the earthquake from last week and ... just watch.


classic

Video Killed the Radio Star: Artificial...yes, Intelligent...no.

From io9.com, seems like someone decided to put two AI chatbots together to see what would happen. Seems cool right? Maybe plot about Judgement Day? Or complain about humans? Nope;

Funny how computers even get pissed at stupid people.

Best comment from io9, "Scientists force two chatbots to have a conversation, prove that Skynet will be a moron"

Free Speech for the Dumb: Al Gore

Oh Al Gore haven't you learned yet that all the global warming myths you have been talking about for years now are starting to be debunked? Maybe you have that's why to get some attention back to you, you compare global warming to racism;

“I remember, again going back to my early years in the South, when the Civil Rights revolution was unfolding, there were two things that really made an impression on me,” Gore said. “My generation watched Bull Connor turning the hose on civil rights demonstrators and we went, ‘Whoa! How gross and evil is that?’ My generation asked old people, ‘Explain to me again why it is okay to discriminate against people because their skin color is different?’ And when they couldn’t really answer that question with integrity, the change really started.” 

The former vice president recalled how society succeeded in marginalizing racists and said climate change skeptics must be defeated in the same manner. 

“Secondly, back to this phrase ‘win the conversation,’” he continued. “There came a time when friends or people you work with or people you were in clubs with — you’re much younger than me so you didn’t have to go through this personally — but there came a time when racist comments would come up in the course of the conversation and in years past they were just natural. Then there came a time when people would say, ‘Hey, man why do you talk that way, I mean that is wrong. I don’t go for that so don’t talk that way around me. I just don’t believe that.’ That happened in millions of conversations and slowly the conversation was won.” 

“We have to win the conversation on climate,” Gore added.

Wow...just wow. This man could have been president. How you can compare racism to global warming is beyond me. One is morally wrong. God said to love one another, pretty cut and dry. The other, not so much. It seems like every day now we hear another report that debunks his crazy "end of the world" scenarios.

Music Non Stop: Anterior - Echoes of the Fallen

This is a surprise for me. Now don't get me wrong, but I liked their debut and was mildly interested in this follow up...but holy crap! This is a lot better than I thought it would be. In terms of newer metal bands (Sylosis, Lazarus A.D., and Anterior), Anterior was probably the one album I didn't really care about. With that said, they might have made the best album out of the three, in all honestly all 3 should make the top 10 this year.

The guitar work on this album is awesome. I have seen this band listed as a metalcore band and while they do have a few breakdowns, there is more melodic death metal/thrash here. The guitar intro for Blood in the Throne Room is a dream for air guitarists everywhere. In fact most of the songs have that similar style, which is great for me. I will also add that most of the breakdowns come towards the end of the album. I am not sure if it was planned that way or not, but it is kind of interesting.


Vocally it is your standard harsh screams, at times it is understandable others...it's not. There really isn't much variety going on, but like Sylosis' latest, the music definitely makes up for it. Take a song like Tyranny, it is your standard song, then all of a sudden it goes into this classic sounding solo that makes you think you might have switched on Iron Maiden. It has that technical feel to it without showing off.  I can't praise this album enough when it comes to the guitar work.


Last song recommendation, Of Gods and Men. This really reminds me of The Autumn Offering's song Ghost. A mind boggling solo that bleeds into a sweet breakdown. I go nuts for stuff like that. I have to admit I am shocked at how much more guitar leads were put in this album compared to their debut.


This album is streaming HERE and it is one of those albums that makes me want to keep listening to it over and over again.

One thing that these 3 bands have in common on their sophomore albums is the great guitar work. While some bands are afraid to play solos, these bands aren't. All 3 are very similar in that they put the guitar work in the front...very guitar driven bands.

Video Killed the Radio Star: Times of Grace - Live in Love

Great video. I love videos that have a purpose instead of just showing guys playing guitars. The message at the end made me feel like I was watching our school's Peer Counseling video they put out every year. Even though I would love this song, I doubt anyone else would. But the message is a good one.

Heck if you aren't into metal, turn it down to watch the stats they show. And as for the message being good...here's the lyrics;

Just live in love, believe in love

In my life I have seen all the ways hatred destroys mankind
Break societies system, change the mind state, there's no compromise
Don't mistake kindness and compassion for weakness
It takes so much more strength to be selfless and live in love

I trust you live in selflessness and live in love

Through all the days, just live in love
Through all the pain, believe in love

(I change to think you not, it tries to function if this world...)
Take the time to think about your life, live righteous

I trust you live in selflessness and live in love

Through all the days, just live in love
Through all the pain, believe in love

The words we speak, the ones we don't say
Power you don't know you could say
Through all the days, believe in love

Don't you see, we are off
Don't you see, we are off
Brothers and sisters, we are one
Brothers and sisters, we are one
WE ARE ONE

And I pray this is not in vain, all that you know about, all you can hide
How would you feel inside (Live in love)
All that you know about, all you can hide
How would you feel inside (Live in love)
All that you know about, all you can hide (Through all the days)
How would you feel inside (Live in love)
All that you know about, all you can hide (Through all the pain)
How would you feel inside (Live in love)