I’ve been late to the letlive. party despite many folks around me going nuts over them. Hardcore isn’t exactly the genre for me anyway save for crust bands, but I finally gave the group a chance with their latest single ‘Banshee (Ghost Fame)’ and was floored. Since then, I’ve heard the group described as progressive hardcore, which isn’t far off the mark. I sort of see them as a mix between Rage Against The Machine, Glassjaw, and Every Time I Die. Make of that what you will, but it truly rocks.
Black Sabbath01. End Of The Beginning
02. God Is Dead?
03. Loner
04. Zeitgeist
05. Age Of Reason
06. Live Forever
07. Damaged Soul
08. Dear Father
DISCLAIMER: This track by track review was written as a one time run through listen of the new album at the exclusive listening event in L.A.. This is not definitive nor refined. A more cohesive review of the album will be released when it is available.
Now that we have that out of the way, let us explore this sensational piece of heavy metal history. 13 is the first new Black Sabbath album since 1995′s Forbidden, the first with Ozzy Osbourne since 1978′s Never Say Die!, and the first with Geezer Butler since 1994′s Cross Purposes. In the current age where comebacks have been a growing trend, few others have me more excited than the return of Black Sabbath with Ozzy on vocals (though it’s sad that Bill Ward will not be on the album, who was replaced by Rage Against The Machine/ex-Audioslave drummer Brad Wilk). With so much controversy and disagreements conflicting their highly publicized reunion that was shown last year, things were put off to a point where it seemed like things might never work out. Thankfully, they did.
All That Remains – A War You Cannot WinOh how the mighty have fallen. All That Remains still holds a special place in many of our hearts, as This Darkened Heart and The Fall of Ideals remain among some of the greatest material to ever come out of the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal/metalcore scene. Those days are unfortunately long gone, and things don’t look promising. The band stumbled through Overcome and For We Are Many, but the band’s latest pitfall A War You Cannot Win sees the band making yet another grab for radio-friendly rock hits that are formulaic and absolutely boring, falling even further away from the sound that first put them on the map. Gone are the powerfully heavy yet uplifting anthems of ‘Six‘ and ‘The Weak Willed.’ Instead, we’re left with boring uninspired songwriting that we’ve heard done better in previous albums at best and hamfisted paint-by-numbers mediocrity bordering on butt-rock territory at worst. One thing you can still count on All That Remains for is ripping guitar solos, and fortunately lead guitarist Oli Herbert hasn’t stopped contributing harmonic leads and shred, but it’s usually not worth sitting through the songs to get to them. Pass on this, and stick with the pre-Overcome discography and wonder where it all went. - JR
Hey guys! I just wanted to say that normally this column is Nayon’s pride and joy and he was kind enough to let me take the reigns this time around.
Today, I sit here with the daunting task of making this album appeal to you and unfortunately, I doubt I will be able to sway every one of you. The very thought of this record requires an open mind because most of you will cringe when I utter the term ‘ska-metal’, but I won’t lie to you – this album is very strange. Nevertheless, I challenge you to love this record the way I do.
My discovery of Ninjaspy was timely as it came hand in hand with my discovery of Between the Buried and Me‘s Colors. For most of us, Colors changed the way we see music. After Colors I left my elitism at the door; I started to look at the intention of music. No longer did I try and think about what music should be; I instead started to enjoy it for what it is. This allowed me to recognising Pi Nature as a masterpiece instead of dismissing it for what I would have thought to be a gimmick – and I couldn’t be more grateful. To this day, the first couple of times I listened to Pi Nature remain my most enjoyable musical experience. It was ethereal.
Don’t worry; I don’t mean that Morello has donned a hoody, taken to Britain’s streets and revealed a penchant for pyromania. No, instead the Rage Against The Machine guitarist has (understandably, given his background) weighed in with his views, in a conversation with Rock Sound:
“I have been following matters in the UK rather closely and I think it’s no accident that over the course of the last year we’ve seen this kind of social unrest around the globe from the Arab Spring, to the riots in Spain and Greece caused by the austerity measures and the 100,000 people seen on the streets of Wisconsin as working class people stood up for their union rights. When people have the opportunity to look forward to a bright future with educational opportunities, safety, security and a positive economic outlook they do not take to the streets and riot. When people are standing at the lip of the abyss, looking into a future of poverty, deprivation and crime, that is when the powder-keg is set to be lit.
As the gap between rich and poor grows more grotesque around the globe it’s really no surprise that the incidents we’ve seen in the UK recently are occurring.
I refused to put pictures of an actual homecoming, but this is basically what it looks like.
I am going to my first school dance tonight. It’s not because I’m a freshman in high school, I have just found a way to avoid every dance up to this point but EmocoreGF (I’m trying to teach her) comes with contract restrictions. Trust me, I don’t mind being with her, I’m going to make it fun no matter what, I just know exactly what type of music they are playing. The playlist will consist of rap, dance, maybe a country song, and then the classic “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day. This is really the only thing I’m not stoked about tonight. But this got me thinking of a world that was run by metalheads, like the world that Dethklok lives within, and what their playlist for a homecoming dance would be. And so, here are the top songs I would want to hear at a homecoming dance and the order I would play them in.
