Album Review: Beneath The Remains by Sepultura

So I've had this album for a while, since before Christmas, and this is easily one of my favorite albums now. It's a classic. Now if you have no idea who i'm talking about, Sepultura is a Brazillian band who pretty much sucks now so i've heard. But there earlier stuff, genius, but then they traded it for selling out on the groove metal bandwagon and started sucking. This here, however, is a classic in thrash metal in everyway. Now, this album (and its follow up, Arise which i will also be reviewing) is debated as to wheater it's thrash or death metal. I say thrash metal, the music is definitly thrash metal. The vocals are why it's debated. They aren't the cookie monster vocals most people associate with death metal, nor are they the, well, I'm not sure how to describe it, low to mid ranged scream of early death metal that was used by bands such as Death. No, these are more of a grunt. Although they can get somewhat gutteral at times, such as on parts of "Stronger Than Hate". But I consider this thrash metal. Really agressive thrash metal, but still. Sort of like Slayer, but better. Although it does let up at times more, and this helps it. This stuff sounds genuinely angry and they have a reason to be, living under a dictatorship and all. Unlike say, Rage Aginst The Machine, where they're all from the mean streets of the suburbs. But one thing I want to mention is the drumming, Igor Cavalera, is in my opinion, one of the best drummers out there, he's spot on, interesting, and it all flows really well. He plays at these speeds for like 5 minutes at a time. He's quite good. But anyway, do you want brutality? Melody? Really good solos? Head-bangy rffs? There all here. I'm not going to go on about the songs, but the first 6 songs, and the last one, are great, the 7th I haven't listened too in a long time and the 8th is totally filler, but that doesn't detract from the album at all. How can you not like the lightning fast guitar and the "Who, who who, has won?! Who, who, who, has died?!" chorus in the title track? "Inner self" is the slowest song here, thats not saying much, it's still fast-ish, like a fast mid tempo I suppose, or a slow fast song, but it kicks. You know when you hear that chugging guitar riff, then the drums with these cool sounding drum rolls, and then double bass, that it's going to rock. Then when it speeds up just over halfway through the song, that part makes the song! Seriously, listen to the energy behind it. Speaking of that, the guitar tone on this album is great, it sounds like a real guitar, it's not super detuned, and it's raw and full of energy. Then we have "Stronger Than Hate" it's agressive, and it's got a super chorus with a whole bunch of guest vocalists, like Kelly Shaefer and John Tardy among others. Of course if your the average reader of my blog you probably have no idea who these people are. In fact, I applaud you for reading this far into my rambling reviews of metal albums that the average music fan has never heard of, of course that is if you do read this, seriously, I have no idea why I write these or if anyone reads them. But back to the review, theres a really awesome headbang inducing part at the end of "Stronger than Hate" which is suddenly interrupted by...clean guitar? I'm rocking out like an idiot the first time I heard this and then all of a sudden I get this crap. Whats up with that? Are they going soft? What is this? I'm just kidding, I like it. There's actually clean guitar sprinkled throughout this album. Like in "Mass Hypnosis" where the solo pretty much makes that song. Another thing about this, is that I can't understand half the words being sung. Maybe i'm exagerating a little bit, but it's just that his accent is so thick. It's not his singing or anything like that, it's just his accent is so heavy, it's obvious english isn't his first language. I mean in the chorus of "Mass hypnosis I thought he was singing something in spanish, then I looked up the lyrics and realized he was singing "Hate through the artieries" now it's clear to me but at the time it wasn't. The last real song on here though "Primitive future" is so energetic it isn't even funny. But I also have some bonus tracks that i'm not going to count towards the score because they aren't really part of the album anyway. Only 1 of the 3 bonus tracks is a song. That would be "A Hora e a Vez do Cabelo Nascer" Yeah, really. It's some brazillian hardcore punk song or something they convered, I can't really say much because i've never heard the origional, but on it's own merits, I can say that it's not a bad song. Bottom line is, this album is all I listned too for a while, go out and get it now, get the CD, download it off Itunes (I did), I don't care, just listen to this album. 10 out of 10.

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

Album review: Black Gives Way To Blue by Alice in Chains

(I know this is a very long review, mostly because I want to describe each song and how it sounds. So please bear with me.)

So yesterday I picked up this album at Best Buy on the day of release, it wasn't even on the shelves yet when I got it, it was still on the carts. But anyway, this is AiC's first album in 14 years, and there first album without Layne Staley, who died of a drug overdose in 2002.
I must say, his replacement, William Duvall, does a pretty good job of singing, he doesn't sound like Layne Staley but he doesn't sound out of place at all. The only problem is that he doesn't get enough upfront singing time, in there old material Layne Staley was clearly the undisputed lead singer, although much of there sound relied on vocal harmonies with guitarist Jerry Cantrell, he was always upfront and Cantrell was in the background more so. Now it's the opposite, while William Duvall actually manages to harmonize well, he doesn't sing upfront much, except on 1 song.
It actually seems that they've traded some harmonizing for switching singing lines, which is kinda cool I suppose. But anyway, this album is definitely Alice in Chains, although they aren't trying to rehash past material, it starts out with "All Secrets Known", its, I'm not sure how to really describe it, airy? AiC records, there 3 previous (they've been around since like 1987 and have only released 4 albums including this one and 2 EP's, although one of them is long enough to be considered a short album, its got 7 songs, it's like half an hour.) albums have always started off with a heavy, rocking song that kicked the crap out of you. This one doesn't, but it's a good song. One thing that stands out is the lyrics are about a new beginning and healing and such, which seems appropriate. The next song is the radio single "Check my Brain", its easy to see why it was on the radio, its melodic, it's a rocking, non-acoustic song and its kinda catchy. Some people whine about how it talks about California, and it is a little cliche, but its about Jerry Cantrell moving to L.A, so it makes sense, seriously. Although I will say that the music video for this song sucks. Its one of the cheapest things I have ever seen. I think they blew there whole budget and we got that cheap piece of crap for a video. It shows the band playing the song and all, which is good, it's what a music video should be, but it looks like it was made with windows movie maker and some stock stuff, I'm not kidding, for example, when they sing "So I found myself in the sun...", guess what they do, they put a picture of the sun in the background! That's real creative. Not. Cheap indeed. But it is a good song. "Last Of My Kind" is the one song where Duvall sings upfront for pretty much the whole song, and he sings great, I don't know why he doesn't sing upfront more often. This is one of the standout songs on this album I feel, it's also one of the heaviest, along with "A Looking in View". But this is the only song we get to hear him upfront. The next song "Your Decision" is an acoustic song. A really good one in fact. I think this is one of the best songs on the album. Then there's "A looking in View", This song is really good, though it has a small flaw in that it drags too long. It's over 7 minutes long. it's also pretty heavy, in the intro theres a little bit of, actually like a split second of double bass, which is unusual for an Alice in Chains song. and then it rips into this riff, it rocks, then the verse with the "Hear footsteps creak the floor..." part with all the harmonies, then it launches right back into that riff, then the verse picks up again with the harmonies, then that riff again, and William Duvall goes "Lay! Down!..." in the chorus. Brilliant, it kicks hiney as the kids say now. Then they have some of that line trading thing with the vocals, where one sings one line and another sings the next, that's cool. And it's got that hook-y "A looking in view too long on the outside..." post chorus thing too, and it's also repeated alot at the end. Great song. "When The Sun Rose Again" is another acoustic song, its cool, it seems to be speaking about how they are back with the "It seems you prophesied all of this would end, where you burned away when the sun rose again?" I think that might be a reference to there sun logo. And then, there's "Acid Bubble", what a song, i think it's the best song on here, it's brilliant. It took a bit to grow on me, but when you really listen to it, you realize the small things that make this song so great. it's slow, it's sludgy, it starts with this riff that just towers over you, its got these slow, harmonized verses, then they've got that line trading again, with Cantrell singing "and I always payed attention to all the lines you crossed" and then Duvall sings "Forgive this imperfection, it shows and know..." part, that's freakin cool, then they go into the chorus with all the harmonies, and then when Duvall sings "Alone inside your mind" the way it rings out, that's cool, and it has a vaguely Layne Staley quality to it,and he doesn't even sound like him at all. All the little things, and then I love that riff that they play in the middle of the song, during the "Intent obsolescence! Built into the system!" part, it's all like duh-duh-duh duh duh duh- duh duh duh duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh, of course you can't really get it from my typing, but its so cool. That song is 6 minutes and 54 seconds of brilliance. "Lesson Learned" is one of those rocking songs, its fairly fast, its short, it's catchy, and its a definite candidate for a single. It's a good song. "Take her out" sounds like something from Jerry Cantrells solo career, but it's a really good song, I've seen some people say this is a weaker song or that it should have been a B-side for a single. I disagree, this is a good song, it's got that sludgy guitar that chugs along at a nice pace and fits well with the vocal melodies, and the chorus is kind of catchy, this is also a song I think could be a single. But its a good song. In fact, I'd say there are no bad songs on this album. But bottom line is this is a good song. "Private Hell" definitely has that "down in a hole" vibe, it's not quite as good though, it doesn't have the same high "Down in a Hole" did. I mean this song has that, but it's not nearly as good as "Down in a Hole". This song does have those "Uh huh, uh huh" responses though. It's not a bad song by any means though. Finally, the album closer, and title track "Black gives Way to Blue", is easily the best ballad they ever did. Ever. In fact, Elton John plays piano on this song, which makes it even better. The only problem with this song is that it's too short, although that's not really a problem. It's a beautiful song really. And I like that they take a stab at all those rip off bands with the "Imitations are pale" line. Great song, perfect closer.
This album does not tarnish Alice in Chains in any way, in fact, it's a great album that in my opinion has no bad songs. It's merely a new chapter in their history. It took some time for this album to grow on me though, I seriously considered giving this album a 7 at first, but I figured 8, but now, I think that this album is deserving of a 10, it's that good. Go out and buy this album now, seriously. 10 out of 10.

Album review - Inhaler by Tad

Tad was a grunge band from Seattle formed in 1988, despite the fact they were one of the first bands to sign to Sub Pop, they were the last notable local band to get a major label signing. They never became famous. After this album, their major label debut, they were dropped due to a controversial promo poster. After 1 more album that received negative reviews, they broke up in 1998 after several years of not being signed to a label. This album however, is apparently their best. It's also one of the heaviest grunge albums ever made. To me, this album almost defines grunge. Regardless of the hype surrounding the term, this album is grunge. It's heavy, distorted, it's got that dirty guitar sound to it. I also like the drumming, they seem to have a good drummer, he uses double bass occasionally too. Tad Doyle isn't really a good singer objectively, but he works well here. I think he also plays guitar. The album opens with "Grease Box", possibly the best song on the album, and in fact, one of my favorite songs. It opens with a great bass line that grooves. In fact, one time a few months ago it started playing in my head and I had no idea where it came from. But I was sure I'd heard it somewhere, then I found it when I remembered this song. But it starts with that bass line, and then the distorted, dirty, "grungy" guitar kicks in playing the same thing. It's great really. In the verse that guitars playing in the right speaker, then in the middle the other one kicks in the other speaker and I don't really know how to describe it but it rocks. I also like the "and you don't have to stand..." part in the chorus. And the solo is awesome, I mean, maybe its not like a thrash metal solo or something, but it sounds cool to me. The next song "Throat Locust" rocks and rolls. It starts and just assaults you with that riff, it's just a power chord or something but it kicks the crap out of anything Nickelback could ever dream of with a power chord. And then the chorus with its "It wont mean a thing..." is cool, and they have the lead guitar or whatever tremoloing over the power chord or whatever, its so simple but it's cool, I'm not a musician, so it can be hard for me to describe what I hear, but nonetheless, I try. Leafy Incline starts out downbeat, with it's downbeat verses until the loud chorus, with its sorta catchy "I'm not alone" part. It's a good song. "Luminol" has a bunch of bass drum that has a cool rhythm and sort of drives the song. Until the middle when it gets soft with the acoustic guitar for a bit, except the electric guitars chaotically chiming in, then it goes back to the cool drumming. Then it gets even softer with a piano and acoustic guitar. That's cool. Then it goes back to electric and starts the end part of the song. But I'm not going to go into detail about each song. "Ulcer" is alright but, it doesn't really impress me much. It doesn't seem to stand out alot. "Lycanthrope" pretty much sucks. I don't like it. "Just bought the Farm" is an ok song. Not really bad, not really good. "Rotor" is really heavy. It opens with this bass line, then the guitar comes in for one moment, then it goes back to just bass. It's so simple but I think its cool. It's got a cool riff too, its heavy and grooves. And I just like the way Tad Doyle Belts out the chorus. "Paregoric" is, along with "Grease Box" one of the best songs on here. Its got a great crescendo riff that gets stuck in your head too, the riff is really cool sounding. Plus it's got that "Too late!" band chant too. "Pansy" has a really sludgy riff. The closer song "Gouge" is a ballad, with acoustic guitars mixed with electric, and is the most melodic song on here. It ends with a whole bunch of feedback noises. It's a good song. All in all, this is a really good heavy metal/grunge album. An album that rocks and rolls, This is exactly what it sounds like, really heavy grunge. 8 out of 10

Album Review: Weapons of Our Warfare by Deliverance

(11/2/09 edit: What was I thinking? A 10? This album is really good, but a 10? This is too melodic to really kick my ***. Besides, his voice fits better with there more progressive metal stuff, like on Stay of Excecution (and he sounds almost exactly like the guy from Queensrÿche not Ronnie James Dio.) Now that is a good song. The chugging riff with a rhythm that charges forward. That is what I like in metal. My new rating is 8 out of 10)

(A few minutes later: I'm back after a few minutes, what am I talking about? Of course it sounds great, but prehaps I just dont like the operatic singing. Whatever the case, I overrated this album, its still really good, but not a 10.)

(1/12/10 edit: No! What was I thinking? It's not a bad album at all, its pretty good, there later stuff sucks I hear, although I do like the song "Stay of Execution", my final rating of 8 out of 10 still stands, but this is still a good metal album, of course it's heavy at times.)

So soon after I posted that video, and impressed by some stuff I heard on Rhapsody, I downloaded the album off I-tunes. My conclusion. This album rules. With a capital R. To start off, the production on this album is great. The musicianship is on par with early Metallica and Megadeth. And almost all of it is sutible for headbanging, or "Brain Breaking" as Leah calls it. This means alot coming from a Christian band. Where alot seem to stay in amaturism, I think because they have a guaranteed fan base, not these guys, these guys are up there, they seem serious about musicianship. Not to mention, even though it's a Christian band, you won't find any preaching or bible stories or anything (except maybe "23" which is about psalm 23, but Megadeth did the same thing) it's all spiritual warfare and such. Some songs that stand out to me, are "This Present Darkness" which is a fast shredder and reminds me of Metallica's "Battery" (but doesn't rip it off at all.) The title track, "Weapons of Our Warfare" which you can watch below, (and which Lars Ulrich called one of his top 10 favorite videos)."Solitude, which is one of the more melodic songs and is one of the best songs on the album. "Flesh and Blood" which at 7:21, is the longest song on here and rules. "Greetings of Death" which has a cool doodly hammer riff. After listning to it a couple times, I noticed the similarities to Metallica's "The End of The Line". But they didn't rip it off since this came out 18 years before Death Magnetic. But there really are no bad songs on this album, all of them are good in fact. (Except "Bought for Blood" objectivly speaking I suppose it's not a terrible song, but I don't like it.) On a side note, the singer doesn't really have alot of growl to his singing, he sings agressivly, and has a good range, well, actually thats a good thing he isn't trying to rip off James Hetfield, but he sounds fine, he doesnt sound like Joey Belladonna, he has more of a Ronnie James Dio quality to his voice. (Now that I listen to this more, he kinda sounds like Dave Mustaine in his higher ranges, but with out the grumbling and mumbling.) So it's still metal. Bottom Line: really well played speed metal, go out and buy this album now. 10 out 10

Song and Video of the Week

Heres a song I found, its a thrash metal song called "Weapons of our Warfare", it's by a band called Deliverance, there a Christian band with a singer that sounds alot like Ronnie James Dio. He sang about elves and stuff, this doesnt sound too out of place. If my opinion isn't enough, Lars Ulrich called this video one of his top 10 favorites. (Maybe that doesnt help, idk.) Bottom line, this song rules.

Deliverance - Weapons of our warfare



This is hystarical, a bear is tranquilized, lands on a tramploine, and faceplants on the lawn, hilarious.

Bear Trampoline

Creed is getting back together

This is just sad, Creed is getting back together after breaking up in 2003, this is wonderful news, more terrible music to clog the radio. I can't beleive this, all they do is make background noise by playing 3 chords sluggishly over and over, with an Eddie Vedder impersonator singing, and a bad drummer. Why can't people make good music these days? Seriously, I mean can't they make something thats interesting? How long will this generic radio filler era last? It's been at least 12 years. This is bull. Seriously, I can not wait for the garbage to be released.

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

Song and Video of the Week

So once again I searched, than I remembered this. Surely this wouldn't have "embedding disabled by request." it didn't. I like this song, though this version isn't as good as the album version, especially since at this point in time the singer was definitely not what he'd used to be. Nonetheless, this is still good.

Alice in chains-Got me wrong (Unplugged)


Here's a hilarious video of kids getting hit with exercise ball.

Kid Meets Wall

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 ride horses myself and I can say with certainty that this kid is an idiot. Also, they seem to just be trespassing on someone else's pasture or farm or whatever, even if this were his horses he'd still be an idiot. Though I'm kinda surprised he stayed on as long as he did, one thing that kinda disturbing is that they just laugh. Still kinda funny.


Stupid Kid



I'm not as much a fan of Megadeth as I am of Metallica, I don't own any albums, though I will eventually, but while they aren't as consistent, this is still a really good song. Skip to 1:13 for the music. In case you were wondering, the song (and video) is about aliens.

Megadeth -- Hangar 18

Music at Walmart

I dont like the music selection at Wal-mart, it's terrible. They barely have anything. They have Top 40 and a few other things and that's it. In some places the only place to buy music is at Wal-mart. They have that market cornered. That's Bad. One good point some guy on the Internet made was that they refuse to sell uncensored albums, yet they sell R rated movies and M rated video games. Uncensored. Sometimes, even if an album doesn't have a sticker they'll still censor it. Except they don't tell you. I buy albums at Wal-mart sometimes, mostly because they have some good deals, but I make sure what I'm buying doesn't have a sticker on it so I know it won't be censored. They censor alot of albums that may or may not have deserve it. But they didn't censor Nickelbacks new album. Why didn't they? It doesn't have a sticker. Why not? I'll tell you why. Those "parental advisory" stickers don't have any set standards like with movies and video games. Whether or not it gets a sticker is determined by the record label. This leads to some albums with absolutely no cussing on them to get stickers, while some albums with all sorts language or objectionable content wouldn't get one. They didn't put it on the Nickelback album. I think that it's so it would sell more and wouldn't put off parents. Besides, the lyrics on that album are just downright idiotic. You know, Nickelback used to be a Metallica cover band, I'm serious, they started out playing good music. But anyway, album wasn't censored. Another thing is that Walmart never has anything where it should be. One time I was looking for something and found it half way down the aisle. I'm not kidding. It says the artist on the little cardboard thing you know? And theirs a hodgepodge of different people, but nothing of what it says it is. I've seen worse at bookstores with music organization. But still. It's really the fault of people who are too lazy to put things in the proper place. But wouldn't you'd think the store would move it back everyday? I prefer to buy music at Best Buy, they have an excellent selection of artists, sell uncensored album versions, and everything is always where it should be. Although sometimes it's a hit or miss. For instance. When I go to buy music, I have a mental list of albums I want. Let me tell you what happened once. I was looking for some albums. I looked at Anthrax, didn't have the album I was looking for (Among The Living). This is strange because it happens to be their most popular album. They had a bunch of greatest hits albums, but I'm not the kind of person who just buys a greatest hits album. Unless their mostly a singles band (Creedence Clearwater Revival) or have way too many albums (David Allen Coe, with 41 studio albums) then I'll make an exception. I mostly stick to actual albums and not contemplations. So I moved on to Soundgarden, I was looking for Down On The Upside, they had Superunknown (already had it, and one of my favorite albums by the way), Badmotorfinger (already had it), A greatest hits album (already explained), they even had Ultramega OK their debut album that was made back when they were a local band that no one had ever heard of. But they didn't have what I was looking for. I went to The Smashing Pumpkins,alot of Internet people (such as Mark Prindle) hate them, but you can't deny they have some good songs, plus Brad from Brad's Completely Useless Record Reviews gave it a 10. But I didn't didn't find what I was looking for (Siamese Dream). This is strange, because sometimes they don't have the most popular albums by famous musicians, but they will have just about every obscure Death Metal band and people you've never heard that of you can imagine. Seriously, I saw a band called Sounds Of Animals Fighting. I'm serious, what the heck is that? Nonetheless, Best Buy is an excellent choice of music, it blows Wal-mart out of the water.

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

I-pod Music download quality

I dont normally download music, but with this particular album, i already did along time ago with rhapsody. Im not getting rid of rhapsody, you get 25 free plays a month, so i can review an album for free. But for the most part iv'e switched to I tunes because i got an I-pod touch. This album i couldnt transfer becasue of copyright protections embeddded. I had a giftcard and thought, it wouldnt matter if i downloaded it again. So I do. I look at it on my computer. 128 bit rate! Thats bad. I like to have the highest quality sound i can get. Now I try to set all my music the highest it will let me, 320 Kbps. Now, when i downloaded this album the first time, i came as 193 bit rate, acceptable in my eyes. Of course thats before i relized i hadnt set it to a higher bit rate. But 128 is bad. Good thing I didnt pay for it. Im just gonna but a physical copy of the album like i always do. 128 bit rate is unnacceptable. I-tunes needs to get higher quality download quality.

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.

Video and Song of the week

This is this guys non-fiction story about a run in with the cops at age 5, I dont know if its actually true, but its hilarious, the way he narrates is hysterical.

911 Call by 5yr Old



Hard to choose, maybe next week I'll do Soundgarden.

System Of A Down - Toxicity

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

Other people that do rants that I like

besides doing my own rants, i also read and watch other peoples as well, many of these people inspired me to start this blog.

62365

This guy, with his strange name of a few numbers, is the guy who originally inspired me to do this blog. And i admit, i steal some of his points on things too, in fact, i liked his NASCAR one so much, i decided to use alot his talking points, cause its so true, yeah, my best rant isn't even completely mine. I admit, alot of my really early posts, were not completely my own ideas, but really, this guys hilarious, o yeah, i started using his Later thing too cause i liked it so much. It works doesn't it?

http://www.youtube.com/user/62365

Angry Video Game Nerd

I like this guy, he's very funny, he also cusses alot, but i try to keep this clean, which is why I don't post his videos. I did however, take some of his pens at the post office rant. Off his you know whats Bull$*1* series of videos. He normally reviews really old games and are hilarious. But besides for that pens at the post office, i don't take any of his ideas or reviewing style.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesNintendoNerd


Brad’s Completely Useless Record Reviews


Now this guy is called Brad, and hes not my cousin. He inspired me to do albums occasionally, even though he admits he ripped of 99% of Mark Prindles writing style. he also used to cuss in alot of his early reviews, but he almost never does anymore, hes matured alot. He also seems to be really slow in updating lately, but whatever, I also adopted his simple 1-10 rating system, instead of letters, grades or such. he also likes Led Zeppelin alot for some reason. Other than that he seems to have somewhat similar tastes to mine.

http://www.geocities.com/bradreviews/

Theres also some random teens who did some things on HSM that i can't pinpoint.

Those 3 are ones i like alot. Theres probably more, but i'll edit this list over time. Later.