Warning: the idkfa server hosts have implemented an incredibly annoying security feature.
Essentially: any content being sent to the server (posts, etc.) are scanned in a similar way that one scans email for spam. Depending on the content of your message, certain words or combinations of words may put you over the threshold of what my hosts consider suspicious content. If so, you will recieve a "403 Forbidden" message, with no indication as to why.
Unfortunately, there isn't much I can do about this at the moment. I will try to research and see if there's a way I can be exempt from this. For the time being: try to sound less like spam. Thanks.
I've listened to this album quite a few times now. The depth to the composition is incredible, and seems to be a combination of the first and second albums, which focused on technicality and melodies, respectively, but not on variety. The playing is immensely technical, but with great melodies, and there is much more variety on this album (it's not all shredding!).
4.0/5 - Great instrumental album. Third time seems to be the charm.
This is advertised as melodic death metal, although I have no idea why: it is essentially just straight up metalcore. In fact, it sounds like a mashup of As I Lay Dying (sidebar: lol @ fucking Tim Lambesis) and Unearth, with a bit more emphasis on the latter due to the prevalence of gothernburg style guitar leads and no clean vocals. Apparently this band was once a melodic death metal band called Ignominious Incarceration (say that ten times fast), but then they changed their sound and style for some odd reason. In any case, it is a short album (30 minutes! That's Linkin Park length!) with two useless interludes in 11 tracks, and passes by quickly without a whole lot sticking.
2.5/5 - This is average metalcore. Which is not to say it is bad necessarily, just nothing new. It is definitely delivered professionally enough to have almost half the album make my workout playlist, but is interchangeable with any Unearth song (which is a group of more capable musicians).
I just finished as a judge for a statewide creative writing contest. I judged the 3rd-5th grade category. Very happy that we chose a sci fi story as our third place winner. I think too often sci fi/fantasy gets lost in the shuffle in literature and doesn't get the respect it deserved. Plus it was well written and interesting/complex plot. I hope the kid keeps writing!
Ok so it turns out that I only got 3 of the Final Four for NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament. But, I was the only person in my office to get them. Cue razzing from a couple of college sports junkies who thought they had 1st & 2nd place in the bag, and their incredulity at anyone picking a 7-seed and a 2-seed in the Final Four.
This album has some issues, although it is generally good. First, I don't think The Ocean should have released both Heliocentric and Anthropocentric as separate albums: material should have been refined and fit to one album, with two halves (considering they just beat the subject matter to death over the course of the two albums). Second, since this is the debut of new vocalist Loïc Rossetti, there is definitely some uncertainty present in the melodies and songwriting in general... which kept the album from reaching it's potential.
3.0/5 - Even with flaws, this album is still good, and shows a somewhat softer side of the band. The sequel is better, and the full album followup to that is even better yet. The beginning of a band to be reckoned with.
I doubt anyone else here will be able to appreciate this video (www.youtube.com), but it's ridiculously impressive what this dude has done. Boiled down the essence of so much metal.
Related to my asked-and-answered post:
Last night I was spraying wall texture on the nursery walls. The nozzle bit comes off the cans, so I was troubleshooting it, trying to get it to go back on.
I sprayed myself in the face. If I didn't have a VOC mask and safety glasses on, I would've got it in my nose and eyes, which means I would've had to go to the ER!
Always use correct PPE!
Yellowcard... at the Northway Festival Grounds? (vanswarpedtour.com) I didn't know that was a thing. Must be because of that new pizza place.
This is very mediocre power metal (really, probably closer to heavy metal a la pre-Painkiller Judas Priest). I got this album primarily because Marco Hietala sings on it, since he was so amazing on The Theory of Everything. I was unaware though, that he shares vocal duties with another band member (equally, from what I can tell) that is not quite as good (although they do sound surprisingly similar). Therefore, Hietala really isn't given much space to shine on this album.
2.0/5 - Disappointing. There are not enough memorable tunes, the lyrics are generally quite bad (THE Satan is dead... there's imitators??), and the songwriting just doesn't do it for me. I guess I'll have to see if Hietala fares better on the Nightwish albums he's on...
Oh my - if all you've done is read news stories about Don Smith's "Running" interview, you really need to watch the actual exchange.
https://www.youtub...watch?v=9ecwOOsuL3M (www.youtube.com)
Skip to 9:00 on the timer.
Holy shit. This is some great power metal. The lead singer sounds EXACTLY like the guy from Blind Guardian, but the music is heavier and less orchestral, and the lyrical content is not exclusively about sci-fi and fantasy stories (better or worse, depending on your pleasure) - it's kind of like a combo with Iced Earth, in terms of the heaviness of the riffs. I'm a little surprised I haven't heard of this stuff before, this band is pretty awesome.
4.0/5 - Great power metal. The cheese factor is minimal, these guys just deliver some solid tunes with soaring vocals.
Oh, Dimmu Borgir. This is their first english language album, and it seems to be just words relating to Satanism strung together. While delivered with much less bombast then their later work, the dirge-y, melancholic approach provides a nice evil atmosphere, and makes the songs pretty cool.
3.5/5 - Very good, especially for black metal, which is definitely not my favorite genre of metal. Their later works are good in a different way, but this one certainly gets the miasma of evil down pretty damn well.
While I do love Erock's youtube output (www.youtube.com) (even if he stole my karaoke name), his original material is sort of bland and generic instrumetal. He can shred, that's for sure, but noodling doesn't make good songs... especially on instrumetal albums. He emulates more than anything on this album, which works for youtube but not as standalone material.
2.0/5 - Meh. Enough talent, but not enough originality to satisfy as a shredtastic album.
This album was actually much better than I imagined it would be. Never really that big on the Something Wicked trilogy, and this double album continuation didn't hold my interest. But, with the return of Matt Barlow (replacing Tim "Ripper" Owens, who has the worst stage presence of any lead singer I think I've ever seen), I figured I'd give it a shot, since he is generally pretty awesome. And he certainly does a good job on this album!
3.0/5 - Good. Not the best, but certainly better than Part 1. Great riffs as always, and the vocals are pretty great too.
Super heavy instrumetal album. Keith Merrow (www.keithmerrow.com) and Jeff Loomis know how to play their instruments and write tasty riffs and solos. The drumming and bass are also incredibly technical.
3.5/5 - Very good for an instrumetal album. I almost wish they would have gotten a vocalist, this shit would have been seriously brutal with death vox.
This album is a rather bizarre experiment. Written as an album length single track that snakes and weaves like the paradoxes described in the lyrics, it is definitely a challenge to digest. Especially since they used programmed drums, when the band is most well known for their rhythmic prowess! In any case, a pretty great track with many worthwhile sections, the polyrhythms are amazing.
3.5/5 - Very good, but nowhere near Meshuggah's best. I'm glad they brought back the real drums for the next album (which destroys, and begs the question why they used programmed drums in the first place - at least they're been playing part of this album live to make up for it).
