R.I.P. Raintime

The Italian metal band Raintime has disbanded as of May 27th (2012). I got this news yesterday and I was both sad and disappointed that this had happened. Raintime, one of my personal favorite (and one of few) modern metal bands I actually really enjoy listening to, is now no more. I was introduced to the band with their now last album "Psychromatic" (released in 2010) and instantly fell in love with it. I know that most Raintime fans seem to favor the "Flies & Lies" (2007) album, but I just can't deny the fact that "Psychromatic" was the one that hooked me, and I had never even heard of these guys. However, I do enjoy the "Flies & Lies" album as well as their debut "Tales From Sadness" (2005), though their last album was musically the most evolved and interesting one, and very finest work of theirs to me. I really listened a lot to the album for the first half year it was out, then I kinda moved on to other albums and revisited it once in a while.

This really wasn't great news at all, since I was looking forward to a new album. I heard though that three of the members would form a new project that is yet to be announced. Let's wait and see and time will tell what it'll be, I guess. But for now, I'm listening to this now defunct, fantastic band and I wanna share it with you all. I personally recommend "Psychromatic" for fans of more power, progressive, melodic and somewhat experimental metal, while the other two albums would fit well with fans of a more straight melodeath sound. All their albums are great anyways.

Some of my favorite tracks I recommend: Fire Ants, Shift, Fake Idols, Beaten Roads, One Day, Walk-On Actor, Flies & Lies, The Black Well, Beat It (Michael Jackson cover, great one too!!), Matrioska, Faithland, The Experiment, Chains Of Sadness, Using The Light Forever

R.I.P. Raintime. I will forever hold-on to my copy of the amazing "Psychromatic" album.

Kill Devil Hill - Kill Devil Hill (2012)

This album has been one of the albums I've been looking the most forward to for quite some time now and finally it arrived. This supergroup consist of Jason Bragg - vocals (ex-Pissing Razors), Mark Zavon - guitars (ex-W.A.S.P.), Rex Brown - bass (ex-Pantera, Down), and Vinny Appice - drums (ex-Dio, Heaven And Hell, Black Sabbath). The band is now going on tour with another supergroup - Adrenaline Mob - featuring Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater) on drums, among others I don't know too well. Though, if I'm gonna be honest, Adrenaline Mob is an okey band, but not really my bottle of Coke. I couldn't personally really recommend them, but Mr. Portnoy is a great drummer nonetheless. Anyway ...

This album is quite varied, yet follows a line that doesn't completely separate the songs too much style-wise. The band themselves have reported it sounding like a mix of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Alice in Chains, which I definitely agree with and couldn't describe any better. Some people have even said they hear some Pantera in this (because of Rex Brown), but I don't really hear anything that did lead my mind to Pantera, except for maybe the calm "Gates Of Hell", which sounds somewhat southern styled and "The Great Southern Trend-Kill" alike. The album starts with a track called "War Machine" which is an instant rocker and face-punch introduction to what this album is about. Vinny Appice doesn't play double bass drums so there are no really fast-paced tunes to be heard here, but this song would be one of the faster ones on the album. We get two songs that start off with Rex's mean bass acompanied with drums in "Hangman" and "Rise From The Shadows". Personally, I'm a fan of bass guitars and I belive it is the most underrated and overlooked instrument in metal music. "We're All Gonna Die" gets my thoughts a lot to Alice in Chains, especially during the chorus, and "Old Man" is probably the most straight-forward and simplest rocker on the album, reminding me of Led Zeppelin. Much of the other material is kind of Ozzy- and Dio-era Sabbath sounding, heavy and doomy.

The tunes come in a nicely done production. It sounds okey for an album by today's standards when everything is supposed to be in the red, why I don't know really, but it's like that and that's the way it is (hi Run-D.M.C.!!). Very instrument is also audible which I strongly like, especially the meatty bass. The guys put out great performances overall, but with both Vinny and Rex that comes as no big surprise, really. Mark Zavon also proves to be a great guitarist and I can only wonder where he's been before this project, aparat from a touring member of one of my all time fave bands W.A.S.P. But the biggest surprise about this band is the singer Jason Bragg. What a guy! This guy sings really fucking good, I love him! I guess he could be described as a mix between Lane Staley (ex-Alice in Chains, R.I.P.) and Tony Martin (ex-Black Sabbath), at least he sounds like that to me. He also used to be in a now defunct band called Pissing Razors that played a groovy sound somewhat similar to Pantera, Exhorder and Machine Head, in which he used more screaming which I didn't think was his great talent. I even think I can go as far as saying he's my favorite singer of the year, so far at least. Just great, what a voice, damn.

So to put a close to this review now. This was probably the one album I was looking forward to the most for quite a long time now, especially after hearing these three great tracks they put out for streaming: Time And Time Again, Voodoo Doll, and Revenge. I love all these three tracks and I really think they were good preview choices, they describe the album very well, I think. They also made a video for the song "Strange". A good one, but probably not the one I'd do a vid for. Anyway, after hearing the whole album, it left me a little disappointed in some way. I don't quite know what way(s), but I felt like I miss something. Maybe it's just that some tunes aren't as strong as the others, though there are no fillers really. To check out Kill Devil Hill and see what they're all about, I'd recommend the three tunes they released for streaming as album previews, as well as the video of course, and one of my own personal fave tracks on the album: Up In Flames.

Final rating: 8,5 / 11 ("this go to eleven" ;-) )

Keep your eyes open for the album in Spotify and you can check out some stuff by them at YouTube already, and of course buy the album and support them! :-)

West Of Hell - Spiral Empire (2012)

2012 has musically been pretty damn good so far, and we're not even quite half through it, yet. I've been pretty active with checking out new bands / releases lately and I stumbled on this little piece of metal music. It features the singer from Zimmers Hole and Mechanism (both featuring my favorite drummer Gene Hoglan, unfortunately he ain't playing on this album, but it's a great drummer on this album nonetheless), whose voice I like quite a lot. Musically the band themselves said this is a variety record and I can do nothing but agree. While its main roots are in the thrash folder, it still crosses the lines of other genres as heavy and I even guess progressive, groove and power metal to some extent.

The musicians, apart from singer "The Heathen", are no guys I've heard of before, but they don't lack any skill in playing and keeping their shit together. The guitars are really cool, with some great riffing but especially solos, I have to say. At least that was the biggest surprise to me, guitar-wise. The rhythm section is heavy and in full-throttle with a thick bass and massive drums, and together the whole mix is nicely done and every instrument is heard.

The somewhat (small) let-downs of this album is the album production. First off, "Death Magnetic" anyone?? The thing is clearly in the red. I HATE that. Secondly it sounds like a toy at times, you know like a toy machine or something, plastic-ly basically. But it ain't thaaat bad anyway, just a liiitle at times, that's all.

Material-wise I can't really put my finger on any "hit(s)" on this album as it's very consistent all through, but on the other hand it's not always good either. Sometimes it's actually very great to have that "special tune" everybody either loves or hates, but maybe most importantly - catches the attention of the listener. Therefore, I can't really give any tip on what song(s) to try out, so try the whole album instead. It's worth it.

Final rating: 8,7 / 11 ("this go to eleven" ;-) )

Listen to the whole album for FREE at Spotify, and some money will go to the band / rightholders.

Old memories

A friend of mine just sent me a message on the phone, telling me of a time maybe 1,5 years ago when we were at school and tried to print a picture of something. He couldn't get it to work, so he said that I had said "let me try.." and when I succeeded, I said "I want purr." (purr = the sound cats make, but I said purr as a word, I didn't try to make the sound myself). I WANT PURR?? That cracked me up. I used to say "purr" in lots of different and weird sentences, at completely random timings. This made me in a good mood.

My Name Is Earl

Just wanted to share a quick recommendation. There was this TV-series a few years back called My Name Is Earl. I think it was aired on Fox, but I'm not sure since I don't live in the US and we don't have Fox in Sweden so. Anyway, it's a comedy lasting four seasons about a guy called Earl, of course. Earl is an around-30 guy who's a low-time criminal, mainly stealing stuff. His life sucks and bad things happens to him, so one day he gets hit by a car and discovers karma. This makes him turn his life over completely. He makes a list of everything bad he's ever done and starts to make-up for all his mistakes.

It's often very hilarious when he meets the different people who he's harmed in some way, often kinda silly too. He's got a brother called Randy which is really stupid, but funny as hell. That guy just cracks you up totally. If you don't laugh at him, you sure are a sad motherfucker born without any humour. I've watched it since it aired back in '05, I think? I've had a lot of fun moments watching it and this series lies close to my heart. It's so warming in some way and I think Earl is a really cool dude. He's a rocker, I guess. At least he listens to AC/DC, Lynyrd and that stuff, and he looks like a stoner. That's good enough for me. It's a look I could go with.

Try it out if you already haven't! My Name Is Earl is awesome!

GTA IV: The Lost and Damned

                  Johnny K. taking The Lost brotherhood into action.

A game with a great story!

A dark mood. A raining Liberty City. Roaring motorcycles in the night. Blazing gunfire in the middle of the streets. An insane gang. This is the Lost motorcycle club.

*Warning! Spoilers!!*

Grand Theft Auto (IV): The Lost and Damned - that is the first episode Rockstar Games put out after the original IV story / game. Its story is based around The Lost motorcycle club in which Johnny Klebitz, the mysterious biker dude from the original story who Playboy X was afraid of, is the vice president as well as the protagonist. Johnny has been in charge while the club's ordinary president, Billy Grey, has been in rehab. When Billy gets out of rehab at the beginning of this story, there's immediate tension within The Lost, especially between Johnny and Billy. Johnny who believes in certain order argues a lot with Billy, who runs the club in anarchy much for his own good and will.

                Billy breaking up the truce between the Lost and the Angels of Death.
                     Left to right: Jason, Johnny, Jim, Billy and two Angels of Death-members.

We get to follow the Lost as they once again fall back into biker-gang warfare after Billy breaks a truce, which was set by Johnny, between the Lost and their rivals Angels of Death. As things progress the tension between Johnny and Billy increases and the gang wars get worse. Johnny starts to find himself kinda lost within his own club but apparently ain't alone. After a while when things are starting to collapse, Billy can't stand Johnny any more and makes a set-up with the triads, to kill Johnny and his friend Jim Fitgerald during a heroin deal. They however manage to escape and fight through lots of triad goons, only to find Billy, who has crashed with his motorcycle, getting caught by the cops. Billy goes into jail and Johnny becomes president once more, but the Lost is split into two factions due to Brian Jeremy, a close friend and supporter of Billy's beliefs, claiming that it was Johnny who set up Billy in order to become chapter president again.

                        Johnny witnesses the arresting of Billy Grey.

Now the Lost are having internal war as well as the gang wars still raging on. Johnny and co. eventually finds Brian and his faction after a tip from the Italian mobster Ray Boccino (from the original IV) and take them down. The Lost, now in bad condition and a lot of members short, start to face the big problem - Billy. Billy is taken into protected custody and is gonna rat on Johnny and Angus, another close friend and fellow member to Johnny. A politician, Thomas Stubbs, who Johnny worked for gives out this information to warn Johnny. Johnny and the remaining members of the Lost then proceed to break into the Alderny State Correctional Facility, where Johnny finds and kills Billy.

                       Johnny proves to be a real dangerous man, blowing the prison gates, going in and 
                       killing Billy Grey inside the prison.

Johnny and the others then go back to the Lost clubhouse, which has been trashed by Ray Boccino's goons for being ripped off by Johnny. He and another hitman of Ray's, Niko Bellic from the original IV, had met up with the Jewish mob to exchange some diamonds for two million dollars. The deal was however ambushed by Luis Lopez (later the protagonist of The Ballad of Gay Tony) who shot and killed two members of the Jewish mob. Niko fled and Johnny managed to take the briefcase full of money before he fled. He never gave them to Ray however, instead keeping them for the Lost and giving them to Jim Fitzgerald, who was later killed by Niko Bellic on orders from Ray Boccino (which originally was to kill Johnny, but he wasn't there when Niko showed).

                        Johnny was put through some bad actions by Billy and didn't get any respect for it.

The Lost brotherhood now mostly destroyed with only a few members left, the loss of several important members such as Billy, Brian, Jason Michaels (killed by Niko Bellic on orders from Mikhail Faustin for Jason dating his daughter) and their friend Jim, and the destroyed clubhouse. Johnny orders the others to burn down the place to "put it out of its misery". The story ends with Johnny and fellow members Terry, Clay and Angus, watching their clubhouse burn down.

                        In the end I think Johnny felt sad and lost. The Lost and Damned = not a happy ending.

In conclusion all I can say about this game / episode is: I LOVE IT! I'm quite a fan of motorcycles and motorcycle gangs. I watch and love the TV-series Sons of Anarchy, which in many ways is similar to The Lost and Damned, or vice versa. I would love to see a movie made based on this story since it's very solid, deep, dark and filled with action. I love the character of Johnny Klebitz who I can relate to in some ways. That's one of the things with the GTA games. Until GTA IV, I couldn't really relate myself to any of the protagonists, which is somewhat boring, but Niko and Johnny are both great characters who I see some of myself in.

Rockstar Games also did something special for this one. They put this noise filter over the picture in this one, making it looking dirty / gritty. Now, I've seen many fans complaining about this, but in my opinion it just adds more feeling to the mood and it's perfect for this game! You can of course turn it off, but some morons don't seem to understand that, or they are too goddamn fucking lazy to get their asses into the options-display menu.

Some of the music is also new in this game. For instance, what kind of music fits the biker culture? Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, yeah? The L.C.H.C. (Liberty City Hard-Core) channel is much better than in IV (I never was a big fan of hardcore(-punk) apart from the N.Y.C. band Cro-Mags), now featuring mostly death metal, but also some black metal. LCR (Liberty City Rock) is also completely new and made me discover old classic acts like Nazareth and Styx, while introducing me to some songs I've missed by bands I've loved for ages, like "Touch Too Much" by AC/DC. It's my new favorite AC/DC song! Also cool that they put some good, old Saxon in it. Kinda wish there was something with Motörhead though, but you can't have everything and I'm glad for that. What joy in life would that give?

It's not exactly a new game anymore, but it's a classic to me, a game I love and have played over and over, and will continue to do. I totally recommend it! The Lost and Damned ROCKS!!

Saints Row - "2" is better than "The Third"

I love sandbox-games. I LOVE the Grand Theft Auto-series. I remember back in the day when I played GTA II, then III when it came out and had that amazing TPS-view instead. Vice City was the first game I ever truly loved, San Andreas the second and IV no less than the others. Then we also have the Saints Row-series. A GTA-ripoff to some, a different kind of a "GTA clone" to some, and so on. Personally, I'm just happy that there are more games "like" GTA, since that's my favorite kind of games.



I bought Saints Row 2 back in 2009 when I found it in a store. I think I read the back and thought it seemed to be like GTA and therefore bought it. I do not regret it! I've had SO much fun with that game, it's unbelievable. It was like a weird, crazy, comedy cousin to GTA: San Andreas with some better graphics and mechanics. I totally loved the free options of choosing your clothes and even making your very own character. Then I played the first Saints Row, which was good but quite bad in some way(s) compared to the second game.

In time I started waiting for the third installment in the series, with great anticipation. When it finally came out in late 2011 I bought it. Well, what can I say about it? While it's a great, funny and pretty good looking game, it misses kinda a lotta things. I've played it over and over and always find things here and there that makes me compare it to the second. Here are some of the things I like and dislike, comparing the second game with the third:

Saints Row 2

Good:

• Lots of different clothes and haircuts
• Quite many, different from each other, safe-houses
• Quite many enterable buildings
• Activities like fight club, demolition derby and fuzz
• Many different-looking areas in the map
• The urban street gangs fight each other

Bad:

• Quite stellar and bad driving mechanics
• The same with the shooting mechanics

Saints Row The Third

Good:

• Nicer-looking city in many ways
• Sexier girls (both pedestrians and player character)
• Upgradeable weapons
• Better driving and shooting mechanics
• Funnier vehicles
• Buildable Saints headquarters (though only three)
• More Saints-characters (like Oleg, Angel, Viola, Kenzie and Zimos)
• Funnier missions

Bad:

• The whole middle-section of the story is made up of side-missions (boring!)
• They took away my fave activities fight club, fuzz and demolition derby
• But they KEPT the boring and annoying snatch, escort and trafficking
• Less enterable buildings 
• All the buildable safe-houses look the same inside (boring...)
• Shaundi is fucking annoying
• Many parts of the city look the same
• Less secrets (secret rooms etc. that were in 2)

I'm sure there are other things as well, both possitiva and negative, for both games that I just didn't come up with now. Overall, I think Saints Row 2 had more, was more solid and fun in the long run than The Third. While Saints Row The Third has many improvements, it certainly feels kinda thin and rushed in many ways. WHY not KEEP all the good and fun from 2 and ADD the new stuff? In Saints Row 4 I'd like to see 2 combined with 3, with new stuff. Don't rush it, make it awesome! 

In the end, I am not satisfied with SR3 since I bought it full-price when it came out. I bought SR2 for 200 Swedish kronor (about 25-30 bucks maybe, SR3 was like 65-75 dollars) and I've had more fun with it.

                Concept art for SR the third. It did / does NOT look like this .....