After having released the black album, an album that was decent but showing signs of a Metallica that is transforming from melodic and emotive thrash into bonafide radio rock/metal. This album would see them experiment in blues rock, and don't get me wrong when it's good it's really good but when it's bad its really bad. Songs like Bleeding Me have a definite appeal that speaks to a broken spirit, but songs like Cure just drag on and you find yourself just waiting for it to end.
The first half of this album is no slouch, it starts with paced hard rockers Ain't My Bitch and 2 x 4, which are both good tracks in their own right. Although they aren't the best Metallica has ever done they're actually pretty decent tracks. The riffing is slowed to a more hard rock pace, at times almost bordering on grungy with songs like The House That Jack built.
The appeal of this album is really how Metallica shows their more emotional side on tracks such as Until It Sleeps which has sort of a surfer rock sound to it at times. It speaks to the pain which can haunt a person, and though some could say it shows weakness I find it to be a mature take on a haunting pain that gnaws at the soul.
Hero of the day continues the emotional exploration and is actually one of my favorite Metallica songs. It has real feeling to it which showcases this albums strongly. The track that follows, Bleeding Me is another example of this however taking a more bluesy approach and this is a track that succeeds well, however sometimes I feel it lasts just a little too long. However with every track that succeeds in this experiment there is a track that just doesn't cut it. Songs like Cure and Poor Twisted me just seem a little bit forced and filler in nature. The song Outlaw Torn while lasting a little too long is another successful track on here.
In conclusion this album is about half successful and half filler. It shows Metallica's sound kind of declining into something that is just there. Not terrible but not measuring up to the band's past releases. I actually really like some of the songs on here, but as a complete album this experiment falls quite short of the mark set by past albums.
55/100
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Thursday, August 8, 2013
The Metallica Saga- Master of Puppets
The band Metallica had 2 releases previous to this both of them huge albums within the genre of thrash metal. While Kill 'Em All was a pure out thrasher, Ride The Lightning showcased in injected with a little more melody and in a more focused way. Now it is time to review the third album and one that many hail as the greatest metal album of all time. Master of Puppets
From the very onset of this album you know you're in for a ride. The breakneck speed of Battery thrashes you do death for a full 5 minutes straight. Then comes the furious Master of Puppets. This song is really a huge highlight of the album. It shows how Metallica was meshing melody with thrash in a very well executed way. From the famous main riff of the song to the excellent soloing in the middle section this song is one mammoth beast of a song.
In order to avoid a track by track review let me just say that this album is huge. It keeps Metallica's trademark thrash sound injects more melody and tempo changes to craft one of the best albums of all time. This album is an album that is nearly. Its songs cover themes of social injustice, Insanity, and even some Lovecraftian mythology. The riffs on this album are still very creative, and quite thrashy. The soloing is top notch on this album as well. The whole album flows exactly the way an album should with the perfect mix of melody and chaos. This is an excellently crafted album.
The one track that still has to be mentioned is Orion. This isnstrumental showcases really what Metallica is capable of as far as instrumental talent and songwriting skills. The moods of this song change from upbeat to somber and melodic. The solos and bass track in this song is momentous.
To conclude this album is one monster of an album and if you haven't heard it then fucking hell what are you waiting for?
99/100
From the very onset of this album you know you're in for a ride. The breakneck speed of Battery thrashes you do death for a full 5 minutes straight. Then comes the furious Master of Puppets. This song is really a huge highlight of the album. It shows how Metallica was meshing melody with thrash in a very well executed way. From the famous main riff of the song to the excellent soloing in the middle section this song is one mammoth beast of a song.
In order to avoid a track by track review let me just say that this album is huge. It keeps Metallica's trademark thrash sound injects more melody and tempo changes to craft one of the best albums of all time. This album is an album that is nearly. Its songs cover themes of social injustice, Insanity, and even some Lovecraftian mythology. The riffs on this album are still very creative, and quite thrashy. The soloing is top notch on this album as well. The whole album flows exactly the way an album should with the perfect mix of melody and chaos. This is an excellently crafted album.
The one track that still has to be mentioned is Orion. This isnstrumental showcases really what Metallica is capable of as far as instrumental talent and songwriting skills. The moods of this song change from upbeat to somber and melodic. The solos and bass track in this song is momentous.
To conclude this album is one monster of an album and if you haven't heard it then fucking hell what are you waiting for?
99/100
Friday, April 12, 2013
Upcoming Changes
I have decided to change up the blog a little bit. It will not longer be solely about my interest in reviewing albums and random lists about music. I have decided to turn into a more open blog to encompass all of my interests and to do some much needed venting, maybe even some ranting. It will sometimes be subject matter of a philosophical nature, sometimes spiritual, sometimes of an insane stark raving mad nature.
WELCOME TO THE NEW MULTIVERSE
WELCOME TO THE NEW MULTIVERSE
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Darkthrone- The Underground Resistance and Comments on Recent Events
Another year, another Darkthrone album, and yes as usual it fucking rules. You kvlt kids may not enjoy the hardcore punk and straight up trashiness of it but I think this sound is a more mature Darkthrone, a band that has decided not to be stuck in one particular style.
On a different note 2012 was a very hectic year for me and really I JUST now got caught up with all the albums I missed. So to reflect that I made the post really hectic. This year I am hoping to do a better job on keeping this blog updated. So how about a review to kick off my 2013 album listenings shall we?
As I already gave away this album rules. I will do this in real time to tell you what I think about this album. So far I am 4 tracks in and I don't really have any complaints. The riffs are perfect: they have a mixture of punk, straight up metal with that blackened tremolo edge, and believe me Darkthrone know how to blend them just right. Nothing sounds artificial like bands that blend styles just for the hell of it. I really like the in your face feel that this album can give you.
As the album goes on there is very little of the monotony that sometimes ruins these riffy type albums, but I am waiting to see how they do on that 13 minute long epic. This track Come Warfare so far could've come off of a complete death doom album. Oh and the vocals they are just gruff enough without being cheesy. I like it. Oh yes I do!
Well then how about a juicy tremolo riff to break up that monotony, just when I thought I was gonna have some complaints they threw in some variation: Good fucking job! And here goes another doomy ass riff for ya! that squealy guitar rules. Well maybe this song IS a smidge too long for my tastes but that is the only bad thing I can really say so far
And now the last track lasts and holy fuck a falsetto note, I DID NOT see that coming. This album is full of little random surprises for me I guess.
Its a fast punky type riff, and in some ways his vocals remind me of King Diamond. I love when ol Noct comes out with one of those trebley lead riffs, sometimes I wish they lasted longer. LEAVE! NO! CROSS! LEAVE NO CROSS UNTURNED! So apparently this album packs quite a punch
lets say about a 9/10 for the rating...Gawt dayum this was a good album!
On a different note 2012 was a very hectic year for me and really I JUST now got caught up with all the albums I missed. So to reflect that I made the post really hectic. This year I am hoping to do a better job on keeping this blog updated. So how about a review to kick off my 2013 album listenings shall we?
As I already gave away this album rules. I will do this in real time to tell you what I think about this album. So far I am 4 tracks in and I don't really have any complaints. The riffs are perfect: they have a mixture of punk, straight up metal with that blackened tremolo edge, and believe me Darkthrone know how to blend them just right. Nothing sounds artificial like bands that blend styles just for the hell of it. I really like the in your face feel that this album can give you.
As the album goes on there is very little of the monotony that sometimes ruins these riffy type albums, but I am waiting to see how they do on that 13 minute long epic. This track Come Warfare so far could've come off of a complete death doom album. Oh and the vocals they are just gruff enough without being cheesy. I like it. Oh yes I do!
Well then how about a juicy tremolo riff to break up that monotony, just when I thought I was gonna have some complaints they threw in some variation: Good fucking job! And here goes another doomy ass riff for ya! that squealy guitar rules. Well maybe this song IS a smidge too long for my tastes but that is the only bad thing I can really say so far
And now the last track lasts and holy fuck a falsetto note, I DID NOT see that coming. This album is full of little random surprises for me I guess.
Its a fast punky type riff, and in some ways his vocals remind me of King Diamond. I love when ol Noct comes out with one of those trebley lead riffs, sometimes I wish they lasted longer. LEAVE! NO! CROSS! LEAVE NO CROSS UNTURNED! So apparently this album packs quite a punch
lets say about a 9/10 for the rating...Gawt dayum this was a good album!
Best Metal Albums of 2012
As I am a little late to the party I will make this quick. These are my favorite metal albums of last year from all that I have heard
20. Converge- All We Love We Leave Behind
19. The Faceless- Autotheism
18.High on Fire- De Vermis Mysteriis
17. Spawn of Possession- Incurso
16. Cradle of Filth- The Manticore
15. Belakor- Of Breath and Bone
14 Pallbearer- Sorrow and Extinction
13. Panopticon- Kentucky
12. Swallow the Sun- The Emerald Forest and the Blackbird
11. Blut aus Nord- 777 Cosmosophy
10. Overkill- The Electric Age
9. Woods of Ypres- Grey Skies and Electric Lights
8.. Baroness- Yellow and Green
7.. Accept- Stalingrad
6. Alcest- Les Voyages de L'ame
5. Rush- Clockwork Angels
4 Enslaved- RIITIIR
3. Kreator- Phantom Antichrist
2. Ne Obliviscaris Portal of I
1. Wintersun- Time Vol I
And so instead of going into grave detail in each one as I would normally do. I will point out some of my high points on these albums.
My all time favorite has been Wintersun. Everyone joked that it was about time they released this beast of an album. The only complaint I have is that it isn't long enough. Its a bombastic epic sounding album that in my opinion tops their self titled one in every way. It has so many layers of music and the lyrics are amazing. Ne Obliviscaris was my biggest surprise because I never thought it could live up to the hype that was surrounding it, but it far exceeded my expectations. Kreator and Overkill both came out with what some would term Thrashterpieces.
Another one that surprised me was Rush's Clockwork Angels. I expected it to be mediocre for some reason but it was an amazing sounding album. It was Rush showing that they can still outdo the bands they influenced. Baroness was a little bit on the experimental side but it worked amazingly well in my eyes.
Perhaps the strangest release of last year was Panopticon's Kentucky. Bluegrass black metal, it works well but Wtf.
Well this year I will try to be more thorough.
Friday, February 17, 2012
File-Sharing: Destroying the Industry?
In the past I don't know maybe 15-20 years file sharing has been on a steady rise, many file sharing mediums have arisen starting with the revolutionary Napster, a service for people to download songs for free. The controversy arose when the band Metallica noticed that their song I Disappear had been circulating on the internet before it was even released. A law suit was filed against Napster, many other music artists joined in on this and eventually Napster lost and was forced to shut down. But it had already accomplished its mission and upon its demise many other avenues for file sharing began to crop up. Morpheus, Kazaaa, Limewire, The BitTorrent protocol and many sites that allow users to upload content in the form of archives for others to download directly. The popularity of sharing copyrighted material has been said to be harmful to many music artists livelihood making it unnecessary to purchase the album. Many peer to peer file sharing services have been shut down, lawsuits filed and arrests made. With the most recent attack on rapidshare sites such as Megaupload and FileSonic the question must be asked is file sharing destroying an the music industry, the industry that many so called pirates adore and love. Is it harming the artists that we hold so dear to ourselves, or are there other more positive effects?
To find out the real effects of file sharing the central question is who gets hurt the most by the drop in sales? To answer this one must ask who gains the most from CD sales? The artists themselves stand to gain much profit by this, but in the end I think the case can be made that the record companies are the ones who gain the most off album sales. Because to have any commercial success in the music industry artists have become increasingly dependent on a record label to be able to gain recognition and reap any decent profits from their work. These record labels often act as leeches reaping profits off of another's hard work and effort. Often artists are forced to change their style in order to fit in with what a certain label thinks is marketable, certain subjects become taboo for the artist who would many times rather be free to explore his own craft and write about any subject with complete creative freedom.
File sharing can have the effect of lowering profits but this is mainly a concern of big record labels because they are the ones jacking up the prices of albums and so many middle and working class citizens would like to buy an album can't really dedicate the money to doing so, thus they download it off of a website. While many well known artists may suffer from this, the underground scene and struggling artists stand to gain a lot from this. Many artists would never see the light of day had they not sent their promos to a music blog to be reviewed and shared. I think if it weren't for the corporations jacking up prices of albums and leeching so much off of the artists themselves downloading wouldn't have nearly the amount of effect on an artists profit as it does.
The reason there is such a push to eliminate this sharing of music is only because the corporations are seeing that they no longer control the industry, they are no longer the reapers of benefits and it's putting the creative control back in the hands of the artists. So while the mainstream bleeds and suffers loss, the music underground is thriving. While the wealthy record companies weep, an underground network of artists rejoice that they're getting recognition for their work. I see file sharing as a liberation from the clutches of corporate tyranny, taking the control from the hands of the money grubbers and putting it back in the hands of the people, those with artistic integrity. For then artists who are truly the best will reap the most benefits, they will be again free to explore their craft without restrictions, without boundaries and chains being put on them by those who would seek to gain much while doing little.
File sharing is not killing music, but there is something that is killing it, destroying the very foundation of artistic values and musical integrity. What is destroying music as an art form is the greed of record companies, thus infecting the artists themselves with greed, forcing them to choose between being true to themselves or being a puppet on string to dance for their corporate masters. Such is a decision that an artist should not be forced to make. Recognition and profit should be based on how relevant an artist is, how well executed the music is. In the end it shouldn't be about money, it should be about the art form itself and seeing that it survives unscathed and healthy, not writhing with the disease of greed, not suffering from the cancer of mediocrity. Music is art and art is to be cherished not as a mechanism for profit and gain for the wealthy but as a tool for the benefit of all who gaze upon it, for all who listen to glean from it wisdom from the soul of the artist. It is for the artist to put his heart and soul into his masterpieces, to share something of himself with those who will appreciate it. Don't allow greed to kill our art form, don't allow mediocrity to become the standard of greatness; compromise to become the medium for profit, or conformity to become the accepted way. Keep corporate greed away from our art form, and break the cycle of mediocrity once and for all.
To find out the real effects of file sharing the central question is who gets hurt the most by the drop in sales? To answer this one must ask who gains the most from CD sales? The artists themselves stand to gain much profit by this, but in the end I think the case can be made that the record companies are the ones who gain the most off album sales. Because to have any commercial success in the music industry artists have become increasingly dependent on a record label to be able to gain recognition and reap any decent profits from their work. These record labels often act as leeches reaping profits off of another's hard work and effort. Often artists are forced to change their style in order to fit in with what a certain label thinks is marketable, certain subjects become taboo for the artist who would many times rather be free to explore his own craft and write about any subject with complete creative freedom.
File sharing can have the effect of lowering profits but this is mainly a concern of big record labels because they are the ones jacking up the prices of albums and so many middle and working class citizens would like to buy an album can't really dedicate the money to doing so, thus they download it off of a website. While many well known artists may suffer from this, the underground scene and struggling artists stand to gain a lot from this. Many artists would never see the light of day had they not sent their promos to a music blog to be reviewed and shared. I think if it weren't for the corporations jacking up prices of albums and leeching so much off of the artists themselves downloading wouldn't have nearly the amount of effect on an artists profit as it does.
The reason there is such a push to eliminate this sharing of music is only because the corporations are seeing that they no longer control the industry, they are no longer the reapers of benefits and it's putting the creative control back in the hands of the artists. So while the mainstream bleeds and suffers loss, the music underground is thriving. While the wealthy record companies weep, an underground network of artists rejoice that they're getting recognition for their work. I see file sharing as a liberation from the clutches of corporate tyranny, taking the control from the hands of the money grubbers and putting it back in the hands of the people, those with artistic integrity. For then artists who are truly the best will reap the most benefits, they will be again free to explore their craft without restrictions, without boundaries and chains being put on them by those who would seek to gain much while doing little.
File sharing is not killing music, but there is something that is killing it, destroying the very foundation of artistic values and musical integrity. What is destroying music as an art form is the greed of record companies, thus infecting the artists themselves with greed, forcing them to choose between being true to themselves or being a puppet on string to dance for their corporate masters. Such is a decision that an artist should not be forced to make. Recognition and profit should be based on how relevant an artist is, how well executed the music is. In the end it shouldn't be about money, it should be about the art form itself and seeing that it survives unscathed and healthy, not writhing with the disease of greed, not suffering from the cancer of mediocrity. Music is art and art is to be cherished not as a mechanism for profit and gain for the wealthy but as a tool for the benefit of all who gaze upon it, for all who listen to glean from it wisdom from the soul of the artist. It is for the artist to put his heart and soul into his masterpieces, to share something of himself with those who will appreciate it. Don't allow greed to kill our art form, don't allow mediocrity to become the standard of greatness; compromise to become the medium for profit, or conformity to become the accepted way. Keep corporate greed away from our art form, and break the cycle of mediocrity once and for all.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Update
This blog is going to be taking a new direction. It will still be mainly centered on heavy metal as that is the genre I listen to most, but I as I have been listening more and more outside of this genre, I'll no longer be posting exclusively metal reviews, lists etc. I'll also be posting reviews, lists and posts regarding other genres. A lot of it will be rock so not too far removed from the metal world, but may also encompass other random genres such as trance, jazz, classical etc.
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