Metal Mania

So on VH1 they have this show called Metal Mania. It's a show of nothing but two hours of classic 70's, and 80's classic hard rock and heavy metal videos. Sounds like my kind of show right? Wrong. It sucks. I still watch it with Tivo and record it, because they usually have a gem or two in there. But for the most part this show sucks. Why? Because the so called "metal" they play is crap like Poison, Winger, Warrant and other bands that suck. Not only that, they're not metal, not at all. Not only that, they play the same videos over and over it seems. They play way too many Scorpions videos. Seriously, they're fine and all, but you get tired of hearing them when they have 3 freakin videos in like a 40 video block. And there almost always played. I like Judas Priest, but the only videos I've ever seen on there are "Breaking the Law", "You Got Another Thing Comin'" and "Turbo" "Turbo" sucks. Not only that, they need to play more real metal, I want to hear more classic metal bands and maybe a little thrash metal. Seriously. They play Dio, they play Armored Saint, they play Saxon, but they don't play them enough. Meanwhile terrible bands like Poison take up all the space. They play some old Metallica videos from there live performances occasionally, but I've never seen them play the video for "One". The only Megadeth video I've seen is "Symphony of Destruction". I've seen Sepultura's "Territory" and some other song, but seriously, that's from when they became a groove metal band, groove metal is honestly dangerously close to nu-metal. I've only seen Pantera on there twice, and that song both times was "Mouth for War". The last time I saw it, they actually played good songs for a good chunk. They played Anthrax and Metallica, and some others in there, along with that video, but right after that video they played some crappy Biohazard song. There like a suckier Pantera with rapping. I see the video come on, and I'm like "This looks like its gonna rock!" but it doesn't, it sucks. But even videos that are good are fairly rare, they mostly play crap and when they play something decent its the same thing every time, good is even rarer. I don't mind them playing Motley Crue, or even Ratt every once in a while, but they need to stop playing garbage that isn't metal at all. And if there going to play that stuff they should play more Skid Row, because I like Skid Row, and they should play the video for "Slave to the Grind" sometime. Also, for some reason, there weekend shows, seem to be better.

Album review: Endgame by Megadeth

So I've had the new Megadeth album for a while. What do I think of it? I think it's an excellent metal album. Megadeth have most of the time been rivals to Metallica, mostly because Dave Mustaine, the singer and rhythm guitarist, used to play guitar for Metallica, and wrote some songs that are on their earlier albums. But he got fired and started Megadeth to get back at Metallica. He wanted to create a band that would be more successful. He failed in that. However Megadeth have always been better musicians than Metallica, their songs are far more technical. But, while Megadeth may be better musicians, and they are indeed excellent musicians, they were never better songwriters. But that doesn't mean they weren't good. They were, and they definitely are now. Metallica put out Death Magnetic, and somewhat regained there former sound, the one that got them a fan base before they stopped being metal. It is a good album, but the extreme compression makes that album almost unlistnable to me. This album is not just a good album, but a great album, this album destroys Death Magnetic, its so far ahead its not even funny. Not to say Death Magnetic was bad, not at all, I gave it an 8, but Endgame just blows it out of the water. For starters, the production on this album is really good, its not over compressed, it sounds great. The modern production just makes the songs even better. Also, the musicianship is phenomenal. The drumming is fantastic, the guitars are tight and focused, the soloing is insane, they have dueling solos all over the place and its great. The songs themselves are excellent, all of them, but the standout ones especially. The songs just lock into the rhythm and drive forward with a fury. "1,320'" is a song that just locks into a groove and drives forward, as I said earlier, with a fury. "Dialectic Chaos" is a great instrumental. But I'm not going to describe the songs in detail, although "44 Minutes" kind of has stupid lyrics. It's almost like reading a report, seriously. But it's a good song, even if the lyrics are kinda stupid. Bottom line is that this is an excellent metal album, its miles ahead of Death Magnetic. Some songs are excellent, some good, but none are bad, or even "ok"; I like all of them. Even though I'm giving this a 9 out of 10, its tons better than Death Magnetic. 9 out of 10

Video(s) and song(s) of the week

I'm sorry i've been so lazy, because I'm almost a month behind, so I got to throw out 3 videos for each catigory.

So since I gave that deliverance album a 10, I wondered, are there any other Christian bands that are actually good? I asked the question online and someone recommended this, it's a progressive power metal band, and the person who answere me said this was by far their heaviest song.

Theocracy - Laying The Demon To Rest


Turns out, the guy who sings for theocracy, is also the guy who made this hilarious spot on parody of Metallicas St.Anger album.

St. Anger Parody-Matt Smith


So Alice in Chains is finally releasing a new album for the first time in 14 years. They have a new singer since their original one died in 2002, and suprisingly, this song isn't bad, it's really heavy,and the new singer works, he doesn't sound like the original one but he works. This songs really long too. It'll be interesting to hear him when he sings more up front. Now I'm excited about this new album.

Alice in Chains - A Looking In View


Heres a video of a HUGE firecracker roll.

Proper use of a firecracker roll!


Blowing up a pumpkin.

Blowing up a pumpkin with an M-80 !!!!


Blowing up another pumpkin.

LOUD Pumpkin blow up

Music Video Collection

I'm going to post every single song I've ever put on here, since I started this blog almost a year ago. It runs from oldest to newest.

Pantera-Walk


AC/DC-It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)


David Allen Coe-The Ride


Blackfoot-Train,Train


Class of 99-Another Brick In The Wall pt. 2 (Pink Floyd cover)


Metallica-Enter Sandman


Metallica-One


System of a Down-Toxicity


Soundgarden-Spoonman


Public Enemy & Anthrax - Bring the noise


Hank Williams Jr. - A Country Boy Can Survive


Boston - Rock and Roll Band


I'll Sue Ya - Weird Al Yankovic



Metallica-Harvester of Sorrow (live,1991)


Megadeth-Hangar 18


AC/DC-Jailbreak



Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit


Metallica-Master Of Puppets



Bush-Machinehead


Merle Haggard - Mama Tried (live)


Judas Priest - Breaking The Law (Live 1986)


Bush - Comedown


Lynyrd Skynyrd-Tuesday's Gone


Alice in Chains-Got Me Wrong (Unplugged)


Metallica - ...And Justice For All (live-1989)


Bob Seger-Turn the Page


Metallica-Turn the Page (cover)

Videos and Songs of the week

So lately i've been very lazy, so im going to give you 4 (the whole episode counts for 2 videos at least in my opinion.)


I really like this song, its almost 10 minutes long. I like all the changes and such. I also like the drumming, even though its sometimes hard to make out at times.

Metallica - ...And Justice For All (live-1989)



This is a really good song.

Bob Seger- Turn the Page



Heres the same song covered by Metallica, i found it while I was looking for that other one. This ones heavier of course, I like it. What do you mean I can't have the same song? Of course I can, what do you mean I can't have the same band? Its different enough. This is also really good. And different enough from the origional.

Metallica - Turn the Page (cover)


Im gonna post an entire episode of King of The Hill, the latest as of now.

"Bad News Bill"
King Of The Hill - Bad News Bill

Video and Song of The Week

This is hilarious, a kids mom hides and scares her kid singing Britney spears, he got what he deserved for singing Britney Spears.

Kid singing Britney Spears scared to death by his mom


Here's a really good song. It in the beginning of Happy Gilmore and its on Guitar Hero: Metallica. Which is really good and which I'll talk about later. But this is a good song.

Tuesday's Gone-Lynyrd Skynyrd

Video and Song of the week

This is also hilarious, a kid tries to jump off a table with an excersise ball. Hilarious.

idiot kid owned by a ball





Another Metallica song. I was going to do the Joy Division or something but i thought, I have to put this on sometime. So I did. The first time I heard this song when I was about 11 it blew me away. Of course even the studio versionisn't as good as the preformence in 1989 in Seattle. I can't post it here because I try to keep this site more or less family friendly, but go to youtube and find it. It's almost better than the studio version in my opinion. Good song.

Metallica - Master Of Puppets (With lyrics)

Professional Critics

Professional critics are for the most part, idiots who have no idea what their talking about. Take for instance, All Music Guide. And then take something which I've spoken of frequently before, say St.Anger. What a terrible album by a formerly great band (well, I guess not formally since the new album is actually good). AMG gave this 3 stars, which is the equivallent to a 6! Thats a hesitant thumbs up, that ridiculous. If you love low-tuned guitars, a drum with a terrible snare sound, a non-existant bass, no solos, and terrible compositions where the guitar is just an extention of the awful drums, this is it. I like the stuff Metallica did in the 80s, I have the first 5 albums (plus Death Magnetic) I don't have Load, Reload, and definatly not St.Anger. This is clearly nott the band that made Master of Puppets. But AMG doesnt think so, no, AMG does its typical idiocy. AMG uses alot of descriptions and nonsense to try to sound like they know what their talking about. So many descriptions. Useless. The fact they thought this was a decent album shows their idiocy in itself. To compare, listen Master of Puppets first, than listen to St.Anger. Compare the two songs, and I think you'll come to the same conclusion I did. But it's not just AMG, its the Rolling Stone. An organization run by very biased people who refuse to give anything not from their day (probably the 60s or 70s) a fair chance. It's not just music either, movie critics have no idea what ther talking about either. National Security, a hilarious movie i love, got a bad score. How can you not laugh at this scene? Movie citics don't know what good movies are. Professional critics don't know what their talking about. What the problem is?

Video and Song of the Week

I was going to post a video of a real trampoline injury, then I decided, why not this?

The Simpsons - Trampoline Nightmare


This time I knew what I wanted, but album version or some live version? After looking at about 6 videos and watching every single second of them to check for content, I found one, good but not the best preformance, and not comparable to the album version but my choices were limited.

Metallica Harvester Of Sorrow Live in Moscow '91



This concert also had AC/DC, Pantera, and two other bands, One was The Black Crowes, the other was EST. On a side note, I heard that because of the extreme security at this concert, 18 people died. Good performence though.

Music today is terrible, a genre by genre explanation

Continuing my trend of music related rants, I’m going to talk about something I’ve tried to tackle in the past, but have never gotten very far before I scrapped it. But I’m here and I’m going to run down genre by genre why approximately 94% of music is terrible.

Pop music
Pop music is the scourge of modern music, the most shallow form of music in existence. It usually has nothing interesting, instead relying completely on vocal melodies, it contains clichéd lyrics about the same topic in every song. It also has infected everything else. It doesn’t exist for the art of music but purely to make money off people who have no taste and don’t understand that a computer going beep and a fake drum machine with the word love said every other line, with obvious melodies and nothing else barely qualifies as music.

Rock Music (and its subgenres)
After the mid 90s rock music started sucking, yes, the 80s had its share of terrible music but bands such as Nickelback, and Creed, released albums, they were complete rip-offs of earlier and far better bands, using the same "riffs" (seriously, Creeds "Torn" and "My Own Prison" are almost the exact same thing) over and over. Let me tell you the formula for everything. Quiet, with approximately 3 note variety, then the heavy guitars kick in, play 3 plodding notes and create back ground noise, rinse and repeat. It just sucks, theirs no creativity or originality. Seriously, every single thing i hear is a rip off of some early 90s band that is far better than they could ever hope to be. Then theirs Nu-Metal. Nu-Metal is a joke, its stupid, uninspired lyrics written by bands trying to sound angsty for the purpose of selling their albums to moronic teenagers. Unfortunately it works. The guitar is so detuned it isn’t funny, and the riffs are so simple. Fingers go up the neck, fingers go down the neck. Half the bands just grunt like a constipated bear most of the time and barely sing. That’s it, nu-metal is terrible. I blame all this somewhat on pop music for watering everything down for the mainstream to almost nothing. Really, the way i trace this, is after Nirvana broke up, record companies had to fill the gap. What did they do? They got bands that tried to imitate them as closely as possible. Nickelback started out this way. Listen to their first album (Curb) to hear what I’m talking about. After these bands became successful the record companies realized the answer to their problems. They could just tell people what to listen to and they'd buy it. This goes for all music in general. Part of the problem is idiotic 13 year olds that buy this stuff who don’t know what their talking about. Greenday is not punk. Avril Lavigne is definitely not punk. Slipknot is not metal (not good metal anyway, nu metal) Taylor swift and Carrie Underwood are not country music, but I'll cover this in the next section. The point is, the record companies realized anything can be sold to people if you pay radio stations to play it alot and drill it into their head so they think it’s popular, no matter how bad it really is. That’s how it works now. It’s terrible. Turning out the same music over and over and over for the purpose of making money off people with no music taste. There was also the "post-Punk" revival thing. Which sucked as well. I can safely guess that this too was created by the record companies. When I hear it on the pop station then it probably is. The Killers are not "post-punk", I heard them all over the pop station. The Joy Division is "post-punk” but chances are, you've never heard of them. The sad state of rock music in the current day is unbelievable. A minimal riff with a generically catchy melody is all people want now. Moving on to metal. Yes, "glam metal" in the 80s was sort of poppish and was really over the top with lyrics and wore stupid outfits. But it wasn’t really that bad. I’m not as biased towards it as some who grew up in the early to mid 90s might be. 80s bands are really starting to get popular again. Why, I don’t know, possibly guitar hero, I consider guitar hero a mixed blessing to music, but that’s for another post. I don’t really have a problem with them. One thing about metal is all the fights on the internet about who was better, usually these center around Metallica vs megadeth vs slayer vs anthrax. It’s stupid. Their all good in their own way, people can’t seem to agree on that for some reason. But since I mentioned it, why don’t I give my own opinions on these bands. I'll start with Metallica since I’m most familiar with them. In defense of Metallica, I’m tired of 13 year olds who hate them because they "sold out". Just because they changed their sound doesn’t mean they sold out. I love the stuff they did in the 80s, they did change their sound in the 90s. Why? I figure that after ...And Justice For All, and its ridiculous amounts progressiveness, they decided to go more back to the basics, simple structure, 1 riff per song, two maximum, 5 minute songs. You cant blame them, its got to be hard to play full sets of 8 and 9 minute songs that technical. But this lead to the album known as "The Black Album". It made them mainstream. People who had never heard of this band before were now fans. But at the same time they were pulling in MTV viewers and casual music listeners, they alienated some of their older more loyal fans. Now, at this point they would have probably become mainstream anyway, but would they have become so popular and sell 15 million copies? Probably not. The songs on that album were simpler and more mainstream but they were not sellouts. A sellout is a formerly creative band becoming generic and uninteresting. Merely changing your sound does not make you a sellout. And honestly, did people really expect them to play this aggressive thrash metal their whole lives? Seriously, eventually, it'd become stale. Besides as great as that was, they've started to move back to that. If you'll notice Death Magnetic has the old Ride The Lightning template. The thing that keeps them from achieving their old sound completely, is that theirs too many funky-bluesy-bendy note Load style riffs. That and the extreme over compression that just ruins it almost. really, go to YouTube, listen to the guitar hero versions of the tracks and listen to them in high quality, amazing, you can hear things that you cant actually hear on the album its so compressed. But "The Black Album" is not that bad, its still metal. And their still good songs. But from their they went in all sorts of directions. But I’m not going to comment on the Load and Reload albums because I’ve only heard 1 song from each of those. And yes, Even though I’ve only heard 2 songs, St.Anger is terrible. Megadeth is not that good in my opinion, their fans are ridiculous. Dave Mustaine can’t sing well, and just because some of his songs are more technical than Metallica’s doesn’t mean anything. Just because it’s more technical doesn’t mean it’s automatically good. He got kicked of Metallica because he was an alcoholic druggie that would have taken the whole band down with him. Anthrax is alright, I don’t have any albums but they sound fine, and they did that thing with public enemy so theirs that. But I'm getting off-topic, nu-metal is not metal, it’s a joke, the good news is that thrash metal is getting popular again. Theirs alot of new bands coming out that you've probably never heard of unless you look for them. But anyway, on to country music

Country Music
Country Music used to be good, until pop music infected it. Carrie Underwood is fake, obviously studio altered, with clichéd lyrics and back ground music. To be honest, she’s more of a pop singer. Take away the acoustic guitar or fiddle or whatever and put in a synthesizer or something and you'd have a perfect pop song but no, you have to market this as country. Why? it sells better. That way you can pull in older people who would have never listened to something with the pop tag on it. Same for Taylor Swift. Their not country. I don’t care how many times you want to try and defend them, their just not. Just because you put an acoustic guitar in a pop song does not mean it’s a country song. Another thing about country music is that it’s so whiny now. I can’t stand the whininess of Tim McGraw or Keith Urban or anything else. Oh, my wife left me, family...nostalgia...and a bunch of drivel designed to make it sound more intelligent than pop music, when if you listen to the lyrics it contains the same themes. Half the songs are about love or something related to that. Whatever happened to sounds of Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, or David Allen Coe? Did they just disappear? Another thing, how come country stations never play older country. It’s the same top 40 songs over and over and over. Sound familiar? But if you want older country on the radio, the best advice I can give you is that if you get radio from anywhere near St. Louis, 98.5 plays older country sometimes. Sometimes in a row. They have a very powerful signal that goes down to the Arkansas border I hear. But that’s your best bet as far as I know. The sounds of older country still exist underground though. Ever hear of Hank Williams III? Probably not. You won’t hear him on the radio. Its not that he’s not popular, he’s got a large following in the underground, he plays older country, and punk rock and metal. He does alot. But there is him and other like him if you look hard enough. But seriously, why have we never heard of a "classic country" station? There’s all kinds of classic rock stations, why not classic country? I’ve never heard of it, but I should.

Rap Music
Now, I’m not someone who bashes rap music just because its rap music. Rap music has a short shelf life anyway. But rap music is terrible now. I’m not very familiar with rap music but i know it never used to be this way. There used to be rap artists who were better than some rock bands in their day. For a few albums Public Enemy was very good and surpassed even many rock bands at their peak. Plus they did that song with Anthrax. They didn’t write songs about the ghetto or life on the street or bling-bling. They wrote songs about political and social issues and they did it very well. And though I’ve never heard any of their songs, I’ve heard earlier NWA was really good even though they were gangsta rap. Which apparently ran its course 2 years after Staight Outta Compton according to Brads Completely Useless record reviews. But not all rap is bad, just the commercialized garbage that’s thrown out now.

That about covers it. Later

Albums you must stay away from

Since I did albums you must have, why not albums you must stay away from? I'll tell you what not to spend your money on. These albums make Guantanamo bay look like a vacation. These albums are the worst combination of sounds ever created by man. These albums should have never even been made. Never, ever, ever even think of buying these albums ever. I haven't heard these entire albums, I don't need to, i get a few songs in before i cant stand the "music" anymore. But i don't need to, what I've heard is proof enough.

St.Anger-Metallica
I've referenced this album many times before on this site. So I'll go into more detail about it. The production; terrible; the music; awful; the lyrics; a 5 year old could write more intelligent lyrics. This is a very, very poor attempt to get back to their roots. Thankfully Death Magnetic was much better and came close to succeeding, but i hardly ever listen to it any more because of its extreme over compression. Anyway, let me list off why this is so terrible. First of all, the drums sound terrible, the snare especially sounds like trash cans inside a empty metal dumpster. They tuned the guitars all the way down to C making them all guttural. It sounds like Nu-metal. Now, I kind of like the guitar sound, but seriously, play them in the right order. These aren't riffs. Fingers go up the neck, fingers go down the neck. That's it. The lyrics are so stupid, but not only that they repeat them over and over again and pound them in your head. The songs don't flow at all. The other instruments are often buried under the terrible drum sounds. It seems like if he bangs on them even louder it'll make a better song. It does the exact opposite. Also theirs no solos anywhere on this album. Why?? It sounds as if Kirk Hammett just gave up trying. Their are only two moments on this album that would even qualify as being listenable to the human ear. The intro to the title track, which sounds kinda cool until the singing starts. That intro is the only good part of the song. And "Frantic"; does it suffer from extremely stupid, unbelievably repetitive lyrics? Yes. Terrible snare sound that overpowers everything? Yes. Guitars that do almost nothing? Yes. But is it the best song on the album? Yes. Its listenable. and that says alot on this album. On another note, this is from the band that made Master of puppets? Seriously. Its unbelievable how much they declined. Thankfully, the next album was much, much, much better. If your at the store and you see this album. Don't even think of buying this. I wouldn't even take this if they gave it to me for free. Absolutely horrendous abomination.

Cut The Crap-The Clash
Ah yes, the clash, a staple of classic punk. Except this, this was their last studio album. Good thing too. Its hard to find a bigger joke then this from a formerly respectable band. The songs have random, inappropriate boing, ping, thwack and other ridiculous sounds that drown out everything else half the time. They got rid of their drummer and replaced him with an ultra fake sounding drum machine. There are a million cheesy 80s synthesisers all over the place and the guitar has a slicked over pukeish sound. The chorus's always have like 100 people singing it with no singing voices that probably got pulled off the street. This is a complete joke. Now to be fair, even though "This is England" has all those terrible things, their are less ridiculous noises and its a decent song. But other than that. This album is a bunch of vomit random 80s noises that should never be listened to by any creature in the universe. What idiots made this? Seriously? Did they honestly think this was good? An exaggerated but true example of how mainstream pop music can absolutely destroy the sounds formerly known as music.

Marti Gras-Creedence Clearwater Revival
Here's another example of a formerly great band sucking badly before breaking up. So after the rhythm guitarist left the other band members wanted to get more song writing in, except your John Fogerty and you almost single handedly are CCR, you write all the music and lyrics and you could probably play every single instrument with little to no change in musical quality. But you let your remaining band mates write and sing on some songs. Except they are absolutely terrible at writing songs and cant sing to save their life. One has the range and charisma of a monotonous drone. Another just sounds plain terrible. The songs would suck even if they wernt sung by these people. If you can find a worse hoe down song than "tearin up the country" I'd like to hear it, or maybe i wouldn't. This is one of the worst examples of a rock band going country I've ever heard. Thankfully John Fogerty does sing on some songs. They arnt quite up to the standards of their earlier material but they are honestly decent songs. Truly the last breath of CCR. For some reason these ended up on
Chronicle but "Born on the Bayou" didn't why? If you are ever going to buy a CCR album, don't buy this one ever. I recommend the greatest hits contemplation Chronicle volume 1. Their studio albums are filled with a few hits surrounded by airless blues jams that go nowhere. Until Cosmos Factory they weren't good at it. But since 7 out of 11 songs on that are in Chronicle you might as well get that. It made my "albums you must have" list, which you can read if you scroll down some. Bottom Line; Stay away from this.

Van Halen 3-Van Halen
I love Van Halen back when they had David Lee Roth (Still do i guess since he came back). Then Sammy Hagar came and ruined it. But this is worse. This has Gary Cherone. He sounds terrible. Really. I cant say it better so I'm going to quote Brad from Brads Completely Useless Record Reviews. "What does it sound like, you ask? Well, picture Sammy Hagar at 80 years old. With laryngitis. And LUNG CANCER. That’s what Gary sounds like." and he also said "...it feels like someone has taken a large piece of sandpaper, stuck it inside my ear, and started grinding it violently against my eardrums. It’s AWFUL. If one looks solely at vocals, this is the by FAR the worst album I’ve ever heard, and it has no real competition." That's nuff said. Don't buy this album. Start with the self titled Van Halen or a greatest hits contemplation. Not this.

Some bands to stay away from entirely:

Limp Bizkit
Creed
Godsmack (complete rip-off of Alice in Chains)
Linkin Park
Korn
The Naked Brothers Band
Hannah Montana
Fallout Boy

Guitar hero world tour is disappointing

Edit: okay, maybe i was a bit too harsh. Its fine on multiplayer, its a good game, but the set list sucks. GH 3 had tons of classic rock. This is full of new stuff and just plain bad stuff. Korn? Breaking Benjamin? Paramore? Why? Its all whiny emo-ish stuff. That's not rock. They do have some good bands. But not enough. And the only metallica song in this is trapped under ice. I was hoping for a good song after all the terribleness. but they give me that? Why not "Creeping death?" or "For Whom The Bell Tolls"? or maybe even "Fade to black". There from the same album as that. Why? I'll just have to wait for the expansion. And i hear theres a Jimmi Hendrix one coming out too. So theres that. Good game, bad songs. Rock band 2 did it better, its not worth $200 in my opinion. Anyway, now that that's out of the way, read my original review below.


So, flushed with Christmas money, about 2 $50 visa cards, $20 in cash, a $50 gift card to Barnes and noble, a $20 check and a small $10 gift card to borders, i like books. But anyway, i didn't ask for much so i got a ton of money. So i go to the store to spend some. I got 2 books. I was going to spend the rest of the money on albums, but i got an X box 360. I figure, why not get a game? After arguing over rock band 2 or guitar hero: world tour, we got GH. Yes, i knew rock band had better songs but i figured, stick with guitar hero. Big mistake. I pay $100 because me and my brother split it. it cost more than i thought, i thought id have some money left but no, both the gift cards are used. This better be good, I thought. I get home, i set it up. It was disappointing. Its not very user friendly on multi player. Some things you cant tell. And the songs, terrible choice. Rock band 2 nailed it. Guitar hero missed. There are some good songs, but many of them I've never heard of. Some just suck. Why is Korn here? Why? Blink 182? They don't deserve a spot. The thing with Guitar hero 3, which was great, was that every song was a classic. Even the new stuff was really popular at the time. And another thing, id heard of almost everyone on there. On this, i don't even know who half these people are. HushPuppies? Stuck in the Sound? NOFX? Who are these people? Your supposed to be doing songs that actually have something significant about them. Another thing, Why does Tool have 3 songs?? Why? I don't have a problem with Tool, but why 3 songs? O yeah, one of them isn't forty six & 2. In comparison, Rock Band 2 features Pearl Jam, Joan Jett, Kansas, AC/DC, Alice in Chains, Tenacious D, Megadeth, Ratt, Billy Idol, Soundgarden and a better Metallica song than GH. ("battery" from master of puppets as opposed to "Trapped under Ice", one of the few songs off Ride the Lightning i don't like.) Not the Hushpuppies. To be fair, its an alright game, its got Creedence clearwater revival, Nirvana, Ozzy Osbourne, the smashing pumpkins, jimmi Hendrix and even a Willie Nelson song, but so much stuff that tries to appeal to the casual gamer. Instead of Black Sabbath, we get Blondie, instead of Slayer, the mars Volta, seriously, the mars Volta. Some songs on GH are the same as on rock band 2, and there are some of the same artists with different songs, for instance, system of a down, its great there on there, but rock band 2 has "Chop Suey!" this has "B.Y.O.B". Both are good songs but "Chop Suey!" is clearly the more classic song. Ive also heard complaints about the note chart being way off what it is in real life, and how sometimes theres a note that isn't really there or something. Its not worth $200. Worst $100 I've ever spent, possibly the worst purchase I've ever made. At least I have the Metallica Expansion to look forward too. That's gonna be great. Probably alot harder too. At least i got that. GH world tour is overrated, its clearly slipping, i cant believe they screwed up like this, if the next one isn't better then they've clearly jumped the shark. Buy rock band 2 instead, it has much, much, much, better songs.

Albums You Must Have

Since Christmas is coming up soon, and as a way for me to get alot of album reviews in, I'm going to be doing mini-reviews of some albums which I believe are classics in every sense of the word. Not in any particular order.

Back In Black-AC/DC

If you don't have this album you're missing out on alot, if you don't like a single song on this album you're a complete idiot. I should just stop there, but I wont. Every song is perfect, some are lesser but not even approaching mediocre. My only complaint is that its AC/DC and the songs all start to sound similar after a while, but individually every song is near perfect. 10 out of 10

Master of Puppets-Metallica

This is the pinnacle of early Metallica. Yes, its pretty much a remake of Ride The Lighting, but it takes side 1 of that album and perfects it. People say side 1 is the best collection of metal songs ever written, and it may very well be, but side 2 is good too, though it can be kind of a disapointment when you get 3 or 4 perfect songs on side 1, you cant be better than perfect. The first track is the shortest at 5:12. Its really fast. Its got an acoustic intro, then a little flurry of electric before exploding. The next song is the title track. Its been called the best heavy metal song ever. I'm not going to argue there. Words cant describe it. There's also the best instrumental they've ever done on here, "Orion" is excellent. The rest of the songs are great also.
10 out of 10.

Superunknown-Soundgarden

Soundgarden is one my favorite bands,this album is in my opinion, one of the best albums of the 90s, the amount of diversity and songwriting skills on this is stunning. Its got 15 songs and is more than 70 minutes long, but it deserves to be 70 minutes long. It sounds like a greatest hits album half the time. "Black Hole Sun" and "Spoonman" were huge radio smashes back in 1994 (Black Hole Sun still is.) But anyone of these songs could have been big too, including the title track. Its got all sorts of psychedelic stuff too. Like "My Wave" which starts out as a great poppy rock song (but NOT pop-rock) that's ultra catchy but then morphs into a psychedelic freak out that doesn't loose its catchiness. "Head Down" is mind blowing, just 6:09 minutes of pure moody brilliance. "Mailman" and "Limo Wreck" are grindingly slow. "Spoonman" was huge and got played every 20 minutes practically, I still hear it on the radio, great song. Only two things are unnecessary, "kickstand" is a 1:34 minute throwaway tune with punk speed and "half" is just weird and I've listened to it maybe once. Absolute classic in every sense of the word. Very High 10 out 10.


Toxicity-System of a Down

SOAD is one of the very few modern bands I like. I used to think they were just another crappy Nu-Metal band, until I actually listened to them. If today's bands put even half the effort these guys do in their songs, maybe 96% of it wouldn't suck. Did I mention, they're all Armenian? Only one of them was actually born in America, and his parents are Armenian or something. Serj Tankian is one of the more versatile and interesting singers of today, he goes from melodic singing, to grunting, to yelping, to all sorts of weird stuff without blinking and it makes sense. The guitarist and back up singer has the exact opposite voice, almost 80s metal type, hard to describe, but it counterbalances his perfectly. They have all these thrashy parts combined with all this balladish melodic stuff usually in the same song. They use a bunch of ethnic instruments, like all those Armenian instruments and gentle soloing at the end of "psycho" intertwined with the "Psycho! Groupie! Cocaine! Crazy!" part in the chorus. But theirs more memorable chants and such. We got "Science! has failed! our world!" in "Science. and we got "Pushing little children! with they're fully automatics! they like to push the weak around!" in "Deer Dance". I think its about some riots in turkey or something about the Armenian genocide, idk. But the highlight is the title track, easily one of the best songs in years, just the way they have that little 2 second drum fill and then the drums working against the guitar is genius, its the little things that anyone could have done but they were too stupid too do that's part of the appeal. You'll be jerked around between all these emotions during this album, you'll be banging your head during the thrashiness, then think "gee, that's pretty." and then laughing at the lyrics and vocal mannerisms in the same song. Excellent album, possibly one of the best of the decade. 10 out of 10

Chronicles-Creedence Clearwater Revival

This is a greatest hits album, i haven't listened to it fully yet, so I'm not going to rate it. But I have listened to alot of it. It has most of their hits and singles, except "Born on the Bayou" instead of which we have 2 of the better songs from the awful Marti Gras. At least their the ones that John Fogerty sings on. When he lets the rest of the band try solo, like on that album, its absolutely awful. If it had "Born on the Bayou" of course it'd be perfect. But really, its missing why?! It makes no sense to leave that song out. But anyway, i will say this. This album is essential for anyone with any interest in classic rock what so ever.

Paranoid-Black Sabbath

This album is an absolute all time classic, its got "Iron Man" and "Paranoid" in the same album! Every song, except the instrumental "Rat Salad" is great. Yes, maybe the lyrics arnt great at times, but think about how many bands wouldn't have existed without this album, really, most of them. These guys and The Beatles (who I'm not very familiar with) pretty much created everything you hear today. "Planet Caravan" is a weird song that's really psychedelic. "Fairies Wear Boots"
is a great song and its got "Iron man" and "Paranoid" That speaks enough about this album. 10 out of 10

Honorable mention

Powerage-AC/DC 9 out of 10

...And Justice For All-Metallica 9 out of 10

Badmotorfinger-Soundgarden 9 out of 10

Ride The Lightning-Metallica 10 out of 10

Video and song(s) of the week

yeah, i know i missed the last one or two but I'm really here for the rants, this is a side thing i started due to popular demand, well maybe 1 or two when i told them my idea, anyways here's more videos.

Now this is funny, a kid gets hit by an exercise ball and flys 3 feet back. I showed it to kids in my advisory class and they thought it was hilarious.


Kid gets owned by exercise ball



So for song of the week i figure, why not Metallica? But which song, so hard to choose. Well, i skipped last weeks, so why not two?

This song is very simple compared to their earlier stuff, i can guarantee you've heard it at least once, still a good song though.

Enter Sandman-Metallica


I will not hesitate to say this is one of the best power ballads ever made, the whole song is brilliant, it has one of the smoothest transitions I've ever heard, it goes from a ballad to a heavy thrash metal song so flawlessly. The music video has clips from the movie Johnny got His Gun which is similar to what this song's about. Its about a soldier in World War I who's wounded when a mortar shell lands right on top of him, he survives, but he losses his arms, legs, eyes, ears, jaw, and nose. So he's essentially trapped in his mind. His wish is to either die or be put on public display to showcase the horrors of war. But enough of that. Its a good song, period. (edit: it looks like all the music videos for "One" are gone due to a copyright claim, so I've been forced to use this video of just the band logo with lyrics. But it has the song. Unbeleivable.)

One-Metallica

Album review, Death Magnetic by Metallica (it dosent suck this time, i swear)

So i just bought the new Metallica album that came out 2 weeks ago, currently its #1 in almost every country. After the pile of utter crap that was St.Anger with its mind numbingly stupid lyrics (("My lifestyle! Determines my deathstyle!") ("Frantic-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tock!"), ridiculously simple riffs, no solos, and terrible, terrible production. We didn't think they could be intelligent again. Wow, were we wrong. This album is a very good one. In fact, probably the best one they've done in 20 years. They've combined all their previous influences and for the most part got rid of the pop concerns from their self titled 5th album. And they've started to play the kind of music that they played in the 80s. That's very good. My only complaint with this album, is that its so compressed. alot! The sound quality is bad at times. All this unnecessary distortion. And its mixed way,way too loud. I'm playing it now and Ive got my computer volume on less than half and my rhapsody volume(its kinda like i-tunes) very, very low, and this album is still plenty loud. Its so loud and compressed. Anyway, its still good. I mean, they even have an instrumental track again! Its almost 10 minutes! and its good! Its great they've realized their former sound somewhat. While these songs are mostly midtempo and somewhat inferior to their 80s material, its still a great album. My favorite track, by the way is track 4. "The Day That Never Comes" . It sounds kinda like "One", you may have heard that, its on Guitar Hero 3. Not quite as good but it comes close. 8 out of 10

Ok, maybe it sucked a little, but comon, its almost 9:47 PM. Next time: headlights on cars.