AWAKEN! – Photo of the Day #5

November 16th, 2009 • metal, music, photography
Tags: d90, nikon, nikon d90, photo of the day, photography

Video still from DETHKLOK‘s recent performance at the Pompano Beach Amphitheater. From the song Awaken.

SYNT’s Intervals is here!

October 23rd, 2008 • music
Tags: metal

I finally got my preorder of Intervals in the mail today and it’s so awesome. I’m not so concerned with the CD as of now since I’ve heard many of the tracks, I was looking forward to the t-shirt that came with it:

It’s so insanely vibrant in person, a complete contrast to the CD cover itself which is dark and gloomy. I didn’t realize there’d be a Ferret Music logo on the back but oh well, my hair will cover it up any way. I’m ready to get this thing washed and worn! It’s a great design. If you have a chance, pick up the CD from Merchnow if you like deathcore or their earlier stuff, you won’t be disappointed!

Intervals

October 21st, 2008 • metal, music
Tags: music

Today, See You Next Tuesday‘s newest album Intervals is released. I’m waiting on my preorder+t-shirt to arrive but what I heard on their site and on Myspace is blistering. From their first demo that I received through Parasite, SYNT has really changed musically. The demo, Summer Sampler, was blistering in pace, must closer to slow powerviolence than it is the deathcore on their newest album. Parasite was something of a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed the remixed songs from the 2005 EP but some of the other tracks I didn’t find enjoyable but I did like the direction the band was going in, although I wish they would’ve stayed in that powerviolence/grind genre as it really worked for their insane speed and Bear’s insane vocals.

That said, Intervals should be an interesting mix of deathcore. I’m usually not a fan of deathcore (which is death metal and elements of grindcore, mixed) because I always feel the songs are far too long. After all, most of deathcore bands start out as grind bands, with songs that are extremely fast and extremely short. So when I’m listening to a 4 minute song that should be at least less than half that long, it gets really boring. I know most people will find something like that difficult to understand but once you listen to a lot of grind and powerviolence, song length is very important to the feel of the track and album. Summer Sampler, for example, was less than 5 minutes long and it was three tracks. I can’t even listen to it and smoke a cigarette without it repeating at least two songs. I’ve got albums with 20 or 30 tracks and they’re still under 30 minutes, some are less than 20. As you can imagine, it’s fast.

I want my preorder shipment to get here so I can start blasting this thing! And I’m eager to see the new t-shirt, which is a colored imprint of the album art — which is black and white.

IT’S OPETH TIME!!!

October 20th, 2008 • 1 comment metal, music
Tags: concert

Tonight we’re going to see Opeth for like the 8th time. This is the first time we’ll be seeing them at The Revolution in Ft. Lauderdale and it’s an inside show so it’ll be interesting. Unfortunately, no pictures unlike the last few times we’ve seen them, Revolution has a “strict” no camera policy. I haven’t listened to Watershed enough to really enjoy it but I know it’s a stark departure from last year’s The Ghost Reveries in tonality and lyrics. It’s a much darker album, especially lyrically, but it’ll be awesome to hear live. I also heard that Candelight Records has released a limited edition digipak of Opeth’s first three albums, which were also released on Candlelight. It’s supposed to be the Japanese editions of these albums with extra tracks. I need to track one down! I’ve had a hell of a time trying to find a decent copy of Orchid, their first album.

I can’t wait for this concert to start, I’m so anxious to see Opeth again.

I thought cowboy boots were supposed to be super comfy

August 7th, 2008 • music
Tags: concert

I can tell you they were at the beginning of the Coheed & Cambria show, when we arrived around 6:15PM to The Revolution. About 45 minutes later, we were inside. We haven’t been there in over a year, since we saw Gojira (that was a helluva show too). But tonight was special, tonight was a concert my girlfriend had been waiting months for and at the end of the night, she was majorly not disappointed. There were three bands on the bill total, including Coheed. First up was Russian Circles. These guys are phenoms of instrumetal (sic). They do not fuck around with their music and have toured with the likes of Daughters and Red Sparowes. I don’t know, or care, what they put in the water in Chicago to churn out quality instrumental bands like this but they have an amazing scene.

After that was The Secret Machines, who ended up getting booed half the time. They were forgettable in my book but they weren’t bad (an eclectic mix of shoegaze/crust with some drone-fuzz and their “space rock” along with “heavy” influences from other bands). Apparently, no one there even liked them but had to tolerate them anyway.

Eventually Coheed and Cambria came on and truth be told, they can rival Opeth in sheer set length; one Opeth show ended up running nearly 3 hours for them alone. The show was great, played like their studio recordings but completely upscaled with Claudio Sanchez’s showmanship. The man knows how to get a rise out of the fans. It was a great show even though I looked mad the whole time — standing around for 5+ hours in one spot sucks for sure but I was busy concentrating. The night ended with, I swear, a near 30 minute rendition of Welcome Home (which I think it was, I actually forgot what song it was once the solos ensued). Simply amazing. Their prog rock influences were blazing through during the solos. Travis Stever was simply shredding for a good 6-7 minutes with a voicebox while Claudio Sanchez ripped the stage apart before firing up….a THEREMIN. I posted this on Twitter but really, who the hell plays a Mellotron these days?! There’s a slow revival of theremin playing these days but you’d think Sanchez was an old hat at it, blazing through his own solo with it. It was a mix of guitar (and pedal malfunctions/overheating), theremin (played with hands, guitar, and hair), and shredding around on the stage. Very excellent. Then came Chris Pennie’s drum solo, I swear he was channeling Neil Pert. I’m glad he left Dillinger Escape Plan, Coheed fits his playing style much more closely. His solo was ripping about the 25 minute mark (yeah, I timed it) when he was the only one left on stage and the other members came back on to finish the song. Sanchez had donned an Imperial Stormtrooper helmet, I want to know how he fit it over all of his hair.

This was by far one of the best concerts we’ve ever witnessed in terms of musicality (ok, that’s just me) and enjoyment. I’m keeping my eye out for when Russian Circles come back down, they have most definitely piqued my interest in more Chi-town instrumental metal.

(Yeah, I’m now a fanboy)

New grindcore review up

August 2nd, 2007 • 1 comment music, reviews

Last week I wrote up a review of DANNYTANNER’s The Finest Grind over at BNNBN.COM. I forgot to cross post this. If you love grindcore, you should definitely pick up this CD.

RIAA is completely lost in a sea of stupidity

May 22nd, 2007 • chatter, idiocy, intolerance, music

Never one to want to be out of the spotlight, the RIAA — Recording Industry Association of America — is up to their tricks again this week. For years they’ve been heading down a never ending road of stupid moves from suing people without a computer to dead people to newborn babies. This week takes the cake, however. The RIAA has now decided to start suing those who made them rich in the first place: radio stations. They’re going to start suing radio stations over an exemption that allows stations to play music without having to pay royalties. Now the RIAA is clearly biting the hand that feeds. Without the thousands of radio stations across the nation, the execs of the RIAA would not be as filthy rich as they are now. So now the RIAA wants to basically negate the last 50 to 60 years of completely free promotion — and incredibly good sales — by suing radio stations.

They’re still struggling to place more blame on lack luster music sales on people downloading music — legally or otherwise — instead of realizing that the largest portion of consumers with the most money (humans ages 13-40) in their demographic are completely unhappy and unsatisfied with the choices they’re being offered today. This is the sole reason that indie labels and formerly unknown genres, such as emo and metalcore, are thriving. These offer the consumer something new to listen to and enjoy without all the overhead and politics of supporting Big Music. Do you think it’s pure chance that bands like Fall Out Boy or HIM are so incredibly popular because they’re incredible musicians? Hardly. It’s because the people with the money skyrocketed them into the spotlight by sheer buying power and word of mouth alone. This is also why bands and genres you’ve never heard of will have millions of profile views on sites like Myspace, it’s all word of mouth and grassroots viral marketing not manufactured music and personas.

When are they going to learn that business models are changing and they have to adapt and adopt, not sue and subpoena. Most Fortune 500 companies that deal with music and artists have adapted to the changing marketplace, so why is the RIAA so against it? Techdirt offers a very funny yet serious opinion on this new wholly deplorable tactic.

The Physics of Fire review

May 18th, 2007 • metal, music, reviews

So this week I got Becoming the Archetype‘s new album The Physics of Fire. It’s an excellent all around death metal album that I’ve spent a little over a week listening to. So I went and reviewed the album. I love this new CD and hope their next one is just as good.