I need new music ...

For a few weeks now I've been feeling like I want some new music, but I don't know what kind I'm after. About ten minutes ago I tried out some Disturbed for like the fifth time in my life, but I don't like 'em. Now I'm sitting with Spotify, trying to find some bands but only find boring ones ... So if anyone's got a recommendation, please share it with me. See my taste at Last.fm. My username there is Idiots-Rule.

Death Metal and Prison Break

I'm currently watching some old Prison Break. I liked that show, but I got quite annoyed from season two already, until it (then) finally ended. Now I miss it and although it was good storywise and for the viewers patience that it ended after a fourth season, I kinda wish now that there had been at least a fifth as well. So now I'm just rewatching it over and over once a year maybe.

In between watching PB episodes I'm cranking some good, old, Swedish death metal today. On the menu are firstly Dismember, my favorite, then my seconds fave Entombed. I'm also going through some Necronaut, Grave and earlier some American acts like Obituary. One American DM band I could particularly recommend is Nocturnus. A Tampa (not too surprised about that huh?) based band whose drummer, Mike Browning, was in Morbid Angel before their debut "Altars Of Madness". Now the special thing about Nocturnus is that they incorporated keyboards into their music. They were heavily influenced by sci-fi themes and their music is like Tampa death combined with the Blade Runner soundtrack, for those of you who know it. If not, then check it out - it's awesome, and check out Nocturnus as well !!

Music review: Life of Agony - River Runs Red

This here, metalheads ... is one of the most aggressive, painful and true albums ever recorded. Period. To me this album sure has meant more than a lot. Dealing with many tough subjects, I recognize much of it myself from growing up. Not only is the messages deep, but the music as well. The musical style on this album is a crossover of hardcore-punk and heavy / thrash metal. Straight New York City scene and I love music from NYC! I prefer most bands from the east coast before the west coast acts. That's simply because the music's darker, have better messages than just "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll", and the music is also usually better overall in my opinion. Life of Agony's debut ain't no exception.

Starting off as young teens around '89 in Brooklyn, Life of Agony were made up of Keith Caputo (vox), Joey Z (guitar), Alan Robert (bass) and Eric Chan (drums). They were, as I've understood it all, very active in the underground / demo scene. I've heard some of their demos and they're very raw, energetic and with lots of feeling. These demos were VERY influenced by hardcore-punk as well, much more than the actual debut album, which also only includes a few tracks from these demos. But this wasn't how I discovered the band anyway.

Some years ago, 2008 I imagine, I searched through YouTube for some kick-ass metal from the early 90's (the late 90's was too much nu metal crap) and I stumbled upon these guys. It was the music video for "This Time" that I first saw and my first reactions were, 1. the music is heavy, groovy and really good. 2. the singer looks like Chris Cornell?? Well, I don't know if I'd say that today, but that was what I was thinking back then at least. Also, my love for the band has grown from "really good" to "totally awesome" over these past three years. Anyway, I was hooked with that video, bought the album off a Swedish auction site for maybe three or four bucks and played it many times over and over. This album could be viewed as a concept album. It's about a dude and a week of his life, so the album has these "day-tracks" in which he gets home, learns that he's failing school, his girlfriend's dumped him, etc. I think that's kinda cool. It sure gives the album a whole nuther athmosphere than if the tracks just flowed on.

I didn't realize it at the time due to not listening to them, but Life of Agony, on this album at least, sounds quite a lot like early Type O Negative here. This album is in fact also produced by TON's keyboardist Josh Silver, so that makes it even sound like a TON album productionwise. I also discovered later that Sal Abruscato, the drummer for this album and Eric Chan's replacement, was in TON before LOA and played drums on their first three albums. His last TON album was their break-through, platinum-selling album "Bloody Kisses", on which Keith Caputo apparently did some backing vocals. Sal's depart from TON is said to have been because he didn't want to tour so intensely or something, so he joined LOA and recorded this album in the same year (1993).

Musically this album is mostly mid- to up-tempo with groovy riffs and some hardcore parts here and there. Occassionally some of the songs have calmer parts, like the breakdown in the middle of "Bad Seed", which just is simply beautiful and touching. I ain't too much into hardcore-punk so I can't really compare too much with other bands, but think of their style as a mix between Cro-Mags* (which I like and know pretty good), Pantera, Type O Negative*, and thrash acts like Metallica and Anthrax* (*all NYC bands, afterall). Keith's singing style on this album is unique to how he sang on later albums. Here it sounds like a mix of Glenn Danzig and Chris Cornell to me. "Method Of Groove" is probably the most hardcore-influenced tune on the record. Joey Z and Alan Robert shares singing duties during the verses while Keith takes the chorus, and during the verse it sounds very much like the way they sing in hardcore-punk bands. The album's closer "The Stain Remains" probably is the album's most beautiful yet still angry piece. It's this album's equivalent to a ballad.

To round off this, for now at least since I most likely will come back to this album many times over, I just wanna say that I totally LOVE this album. I can't explain how fucking awesome it is, but then again, others might not think the same. It's a world where people all have, or at least should have, their own opinions. I hate these wankers on YouTube who can't accept other people's opinions. If someone says, "this song is my favorite of Megadeth", which is HIS / HER opinion, then someone else often comes and like "dumbass, not that one, it's this one!". Does that change the first person's opinion? Hell no! I just hate those people, thinking their opinions are what matters in the world. I have my personal favorite, you have yours. Both opinions are right. So here: from this album my favorite track is "The Stain Remains". My opinion. You have a different one? Good for you. Share it if you want, BUT it won't change my opinion. I say one thing, I stick to that thing. That is the key to not fall for group pressure and it has worked for me since my early teens. I don't smoke, do drugs, slice my wrists or drink any kind of alcohol at all. I ain't a believer in any religion. I ain't on the left or the right side in politics because someone told me "that is better". This because I chose my own way, stayed true to myself. So I hope all of you out there do the same, and Life of Agony certainly has helped me to get here.

Thank you guys, for your therapy and music. I appreciate it. Ladies and gentlemen, Life of Agony! Horns up!

Final rating: 98/101

I love Pantera.

Right now I'm having a real fucking fetisch for Pantera and bands that to me are reminiscent to them - Machine Head, Exhorder and some new bands I found such as Infernoise, Lowdown and Throwdown.

None of these beats Pantera of course, though I reaaaally like Exhorder and their "Slaughter In The Vatican" album. Pantera seems to be one of those bands that has some of the most loyal fans in the world, while on the other hand, they also have the most loyal haters as well. Personally I've always thought that Pantera was awesome. Not the best band in the world, but they sure was one of the highlights during the 90's and the rape of grunge that followed. Not to forget is also that Pantera "fought" for metal in the 90's by playing it and keeping it alive, so it could be popular in the 21st century again. Then we got all of these real shitty metalcore bands (I only like very few of them) but that doesn't really matter.

Many of their fans say that "The Great Southern Trendkill" is their fave album. I personally have never really gotten into it. I started off with their "debut", "Cowboys From Hell", which got me for it's cool cover when I saw it in the record store many years ago. In time however, I've grown to prefer "Vulgar Display Of Power" and lately even the quite disliked "Reinventing The Steel". Me and a buddy of mine did this stage rigging about 7-8 months ago at a place in my town. The guys who worked in the firm that we helped rigged played some Rage Against The Machine (whose first album is known for this ...) to check the sound. Later they also checked the sound by playing the very "Reinventing The Steel" album. It was first then, about 4-5 years after I heard the album for the first time, that I realised how fucking heavy and ass-kicking it really is. Since then it's my fave Pantera album along with "V.D.O.P.".

So now ... I live in a collective and have two smaller rooms, making it a bedroom and a living room. It has its disadvantages by being pretty small (although I have room for my stuff and so), but it also has its advantages. For instance, I live in one of the corners of the house on the top floor, separated from all the others rooms. Since I live in the corner, I only have "neighbors" behind two of the walls. Behind one there is a to-become bathroom and behind the other there is a kitchen and a stairway down. There are also no one living beneath me, so that means that I can crank my music very loudly without disturbing my neighbors. THAT is fucking nice! And right now, I'm about to crank some fucking metal, at 0:25 AM. Crank on, metalheads!!

To all emos out there ... shove this in your fucking cunts !!!

Ozzy Osbourne - The Godfather of Heavy Metal ... and ME.

I remember as a kid I heard my folks, especially my dad, playing Black Sabbath tunes. Iron Man and all those classics. When Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came out around 2002 I became a official metalhead. I always liked the 80's heavy metal my folks played in the 90's as I grew up, but playing that game I listened a lot to that V-Rock radio station. I loved that wanna-be DJ Lazlow and still do today when I hear him in GTA games. But becoming a metalhead was a new way of getting away from things. I had a quite rough childhood, at least by Swedish standards, but the metal was and still is my therapy. But to the thing - I heard Ozzy's "Bark At The Moon" in the game, got hooked and looked up more. I then heard this song "Hellraiser" (co-written with the almighty Lemmy) and it was like my mind melted. I played that fucking song like twenty times in a row each time, I couldn't stop listening to it! That big arena chorus, heavy riff, groovy bass and dark athmosphere ... I love it!!

This was the one song that I consider making me a metalhead. It showed me all the great things about metal and why it's the best music in the world. Ozzy overall was also the first metal star I came to love, although I said Iron Maiden during the time 'cause they had a cool logo and mascot. But Ozzy was fucking better. Anyway, I thought I'd share this, to me at least, classic heavy metal masterpiece. Here you go:

Oh and btw, I LOVE Zakk Wylde. He's great. Fuck all of you who don't like him for the group pressure on the internet.

At home, sick .... with Joan Jett

I catched some fucking shit last friday when me and my girlfriend (fiancee) went to her place over the weekend. Since saturday it has only become worse for each day as well ... Now I think I've got fever and my nose and throat are soaked in snot. But anyway, I just woke up and thought I'd start the day with some Joan Jett. For you who don't know her - she was one of the members in the legendary all-girl punk band The Runaways, back in the day (70's) that is. Lita Ford was also a member of the band and both of them went on to successful solo careers in the 80's. I think Joan is a true rock 'n' roll woman, one of the most true out there. She's never reaaally sold (her music) out. She did go on to produce a few albums with fancy production, keyboards and shit, but the music really still was that same rock 'n' roll.

I am a fan of music like Motörhead, The Almighty, Circus of Power, AC/DC, etc. and I think Joan is right there with 'em. They all play(/ed) ballsy rock / metal and didn't care about selling ten million albums of their debut only. They stuck to their sound - what got them famous - what they are. Anyway, back to Joan. I have a buddy - Jonte, who has a real hard-on for Joan. About 30% or so of all that he says are about her. He also daily watches her videos on YouTube. I like that dude, good lad.

So here, share the day with me and crank some Joan Jett!

Sorry but I'm back ... Yeah, I know ...

I didn't have any fucking internet for a week or two or whatever, so I haven't been able to post anything here. But now I at least posted two music reviews ... Have a hard time reading 'em!

Piss ... oh I mean peace.

Music review: Machine Head - Unto The Locust

Machine Head – Unto The Locust

Here’s a much anticipated album around the whole world, and I can’t say that I’ve been one of those who weren’t looking forward to this one. After “The Blackening” in 2007 and four long years of waiting, Machine Head’s next album was something of a betting object – will it kick just as much ass, even more, or suck the fucking ass in its mouth of brown doom? Here’s my opinion:

The debut single “Locust” got released quite a while a back and my first thought was that it wasn’t “The Blackening”-material, but this is a NEW album after all and I had to look that way. I was however pretty pist off because the single was released (note: as an “Advance Mix”) something like 3-4 MONTHS before the actual album. What the fuck is THAT bullshit?? Are we gonna have to wait THAT fucking long!?!? Honestly I don’t think that really boosts the selling of the album … 3-4 FUCKING MONTHS BEFORE THE ACTUAL RELEASE!! GODDAMMIT!! WHO PRE-ORDERS THAT EARLY ANYWAY?? FUCK EVERYONE THAT WAS INTO RELEASING THE INFO SO EARLY!! FUUUUUCK YOU!!!! I hate record labels … They often steal money from the bands and artists as well … and I hate WAITING THAT FUCKING LONG!! … Okay, sorry. Enough already. Anyway, this single did, as I say, not really catch my interest just as much as “The Blackening” (and “Burn My Eyes” as well for that matter) did. I also read sometime, somewhere that Robb Flynn was the one producing. However, I thought the song’s production sounded pretty awful. Everything sounded kinda soaked (like bad mp3 files do). That made me somewhat worried for the album, but back to this later!  The song itself, in my opinion, sounded slightly more to the “Through The Ashes Of Empires” way, which is negative as I don’t think that album is nearly as good as either “Burn My Eyes” or “The Blackening”. But all I could do was waiting …

And then finally! The album was released now and wow … the album … it’s GREAT! The opening track “I Am Hell” (which btw is three musical pieces in one) wasn’t really the most catchy opening track I’ve heard, but musically it gave me a lotta hope for the rest of the album. It featured some laid-back keyboards and some church-singing-like (whatever it’s called …) opening. It’s also very heavy right on with great guitar harmony. The solo is also another nice MH-double lead. “Be Still And Know” immediately reminds me of some great, old 80’s metal. I can’t put my finger on which band in particular, but I think it’s to the Priest and Maiden direction. Awesome song, to say at least. Then it’s “Locust” and I said we’re getting back to that. The final production was NOT that same soaked shit, it’s actually thicker and heavier than “The Blackening” and I prefer this production. Now I’ve also become to love the song in time, so it’s a solid one but however boring to discuss in a topic. “This Is The End” is perfect in the middle section. It sounds like another fan-favorite-live to become. “Darkness Within” – dig the title, hate the song. Someone in the band, probably Robb or Dave, said in an interview recently that their label had said something like, “if you have something suitable for radio, we’d like to take it there” (oh I ain’t surprised … go independent everyone and let the greedy bastards rot!). To this, Robb or Dave responded something like “we don’t do music for radio…” and so on, but I can SWEAR that this could go there any day! I completely HATE the first three minutes of the song. To me it’s a pop tune. The rest is solid though with a nice solo. “Pearls Before The Swine” is another tune that once again reminds me of the good old 80’s in a modern form. I like the song, but it’s not really anything special. The most heavy oriented piece on the album and the middle section is awesome. It’s a clean guitar-harmony thing before the song speeds up quite a bit. “Who We Are” – starts off with a children’s choir before the beast called Machine Head is born once more. The melody in choir sings in (the chorus btw) is nice, but the choir is pretty awful and very off. Untrained (small) kids singing “This is who we are, this is what I am. We have nowhere else to go, divided we will stand”. That annoys me some, but I can live with it because the idea is really nice. Two covers are included – “The Sentinel” and “Witch Hunt” by Judas Priest and Rush respectively. Both covers are very good and for the first time ever I can hear the lyrics in “The Sentinel” hahaha (don’t get me wrong, I love Rob Halford’s voice and Priest).

My last thoughts on the album are that it’s NOT better than either “The Blackening” or “Burn My Eyes”, so it lands on a third place in Machine Head’s discography for me. When the album’s over, I just wish there was more (not counting the bonus tracks). This album clocks in at 48 minutes while “The Blackening” does at 61 minutes … I feel like the seven tracks on this album easily could’ve been at least eight or even nine. After all, a CD takes at least 80 minutes of music and most of the bands today have like 12-13 songs on a single CD, although often shorter songs. The most annoying thing about this is that MH takes about four years each time nowadays before a new album comes out … I want more this time!!

Finally, the best songs are: The first four.

Final rating: 82/101 – The album’s a worthy third in MH’s discography, but I take off 19 points because it only has seven originals, and that “Darkness Within” doesn’t flow with the rest of the album … at all.

Music review: Anthrax - Worship Music

Here comes my first album review then. I’ve been thinking some of which album to start with and I decided to go with this one. This is a newly released album which I have got to grow enough opinions about, so let’s start already!

Anthrax – Worship Music

First off - I’m a BIG fan of (classic) Anthrax. Big like I really fucking LOVE some of their stuff. I am NOT (!!!) the Anthrax fan who says that “Among The Living” is their best album ever. In fact, I AM a fan of their Joey Belladonna 80’s records, but I think that one is the most boring they did in the whole 80’s. Honestly. My favorite would probably be “Persistence of Time” because of its dark and totally kick-ass sound. So now when you know that, you’ll also know which album I will mostly (unintentionally) compare the new one to.

At first hearing of the new album I had a bunch of different feelings. One was the happy one, one the head-banging one and one the disappointed one. Nowadays I’m very open to new things and bands trying out new things, so I knew that Anthrax would most likely sound different to their classic albums. That’s right and there are both good and bad things to it. Some good are that you hear a more mature / grown-up band and how they make music today. The production is also very thick and heavy and I totally dig that. Some bad things are that I’ve heard so much of this record being done by other bands already. This leaves the album somewhat mediocre and boring to me. Some of the songs are simply (like FUCKING) awesome … when others are just skippable. Anthrax also released the album’s first single “Fight ‘Em Til You Can’t” this past summer. That was also a good / bad thing. The song, to me at least, is very good. A new fave of their tunes to me for sure, but that also left me with very big anticipation for the album. Then when you hear the album and most of the tracks aren’t nearly as good, you get pretty disappointed … and I can’t really say that its second single, “The Devil You Know”, got me nearly as strongly neither. But wait, it doesn’t end there. There’s yet (at least) ONE other good / bad thing about this album. The good this time is the cool intro. That was a really good move by the band, I believe. I listen to lots of electronic and ambient music and to have something like that as an opening … that’s just perfect. The bad is that they’ve got these “Hymn 1” and “Hymn 2” instrumentals in the middle of the album. I think they’re just completely unnecessary here and it gives me a feeling of “fill out the album and it makes two more tracks!”.

Now I imagine that you probably think I don’t like the album very much, but I actually don’t dislike it at all! There are a lot of other good things to this album, like the band and how they perform for instance. Joey Belladonna has lost his glory days voice but he’s one of few whose aged voice I really like. Charlie, Frank and Ian also play very solid. No misses, everything’s perfect BUT with feeling. Rob also shows us, or me, that the need of Dan Spitz isn’t necessary. I mean, it would’ve been cool to have the all-classic line-up playing together again, but musically Dan wasn’t really Randy Rhoads, Chuck Schuldiner or Alex Skolnick. Rob does a great job with the solos and it certainly sounds like it’s Anthrax again, not Armorthrax when John Bush was in the band. The strongest tunes on the album are also real strong ones. For instance, “In The End” is an epic piece that sounds like nothing else Anthrax have ever done. Scott Ian posted a video from the recordings of the new album on YouTube, in which he played the main riff in this song. I was hooked instantly when I heard it and the whole tune doesn’t get weaker! The chorus is real nice and I’m sure this will be a fan favorite that will be appreciated live. Joey also does a scream in the middle section slightly before the guitar solo kicks in, which makes my ears drool. Unfortunately, that scream is very laid back in the mix and doesn’t get its justice. “I’m Alive” begins with some clean guitar and arena song that reminds me of Maiden or some native American ritual-song. Overall it’s one of the better tunes. The song “Judas Priest” has nothing to do with the band of the same name, but it’s quite good heavy metal piece. I also have to point out that “The Constant” reminds me A LOT of the Swedish sleaze outfit Hardcore Superstar.

Finally I would just wanna say that the album is very much  up, but has its downs here and there. It’s not better than “Spreading The Disease”, “State of Euphoria” or “Persistence of Time”. I don’t really know which I like better of this one and “Among The Living”, though. I leave the other albums out since they’re not with Joey on vox. I recommend it, but I would not buy it for 20 bucks. 10 of yeah. 15 maaaybe. You decide.

Best songs: Fight ‘Em Til You Can’ - In The End - I’m Alive – Crawl - Earth On Hell.

Final Rating:  73/101 – Based on the album as it is, trying not to think about this being an Anthrax album afterall …