Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Reborn Anew

Back from another forgetful hiatus. Just get caught up in the real world so much that I forget this blog, and eventually something reminds me of it and I tell myself to go back to it, but I put it off for a while, and finally I just do it randomly. But yeah, going to try and start posting some more on here.

And to help keep myself on track, here is a list of things I want to post:

Album reviews:
- Amaranthe - Self-Titled
- Blind Guardian - At the Edge of Time
- Becoming the Archetype - Celestial Completion
- Soilwork - Every album

Future albums:
- Mastodon
- Five Finger Death Punch

Music Video reviews and such.


I'll think of more to do later on.


Cheers

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

SOILWORK - North American Tour Diary

Soilwork has just released part 6 of their tour diary, the final part.

I watched each part as they came out, and each part told a story. I think the tour diary was a great idea, a way to see inside Soilwork during tours. I hope you enjoy it as well as I did.

You can watch parts 1-6 using this handy playlist I set up on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=047F84D86F1C6A6D


Cheers,
           Soilworker

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Electronical

Just putting it out there. Electronic music is great. I know this is a metal blog mainly, but I just wanted to point out another type of music that is just great.


deadmau5, one of the great artists out there (imo). Here is a sample song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb-EwykPTv8


In other news, I will be putting out a few album reviews soon, and work on a band review.


Cheers,
           Soilworker

Monday, November 8, 2010

War is the Answer

Been listening to a lot of Five Finger Death Punch lately, they are a pretty B.A. band. Good sound, good style, and their live shows are insane. Definitely a band to check out.


On other news, if you like to stalk people (kidding), and like music, why not follow me on last.fm and see what is the latest I am rockin' out to.
http://www.last.fm/user/SOILWORK-er  Enjoy.


Anyways, gonna listen to some mastodon to put me to sleep.

Cheers,
          Soilworker

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Been a while...

So yeah, has been a while since the last blog post, I will get back to posting them soonish. Sorry for the absence.


Cheers.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Checker's Corner: The Painter's Palette

A new addition to the blog, Checkers is one of my friends who has helped me expand my music library vastly, and without his musical insight I'd never have heard of half the stuff I listen to. I am not responsible to anything he says on here that may offend you. So hope you enjoy his reviews.  ~Soilworker

CHECKERS CORNER:

Italy has always had a prevalent Progressive Rock and Progressive Metal scene, but I think we've found a kicker here. EPHEL DUATH is a band from the boot country that has made itself known in the Avant-Garde community as one of the first bands to seamlessly fuse Jazz and Metal with Progressive stylings, all without being overly pretensious.

Unfortunately, I can't give anyone a line-up on these guys, because they've never stayed constant. Ever. Only one original member is still with the band, and he's currently the only member. However, I'm only reviewing one album.



Following general Prog-band tradition of first names, on THE PAINTER'S PALETTE, Ephel Duath consisted of:
Davide Tolomei doing clean vocals
Davide Tiso on guitar,
Davide Piovesan on drums,
Luciano Lorusso George doing screams and
Fabio Fecchio on bass

But enough small talk, on to the review.

DISCLAIMER: This review is purely opinion, and when I say "Heavy" I'm judging the heaviness by the standards of the album itself, not all metal. You won't find anything to upstage Scar Symmetry here.

An interesting note about this release is all the songs are represented by a name and an abstract color, following the theme of art. I actually find myself referring to the songs by their color more often than the actual title, I'm not sure why.

The Passage (Pearl Grey): 9.6/10
The first on the album, the first song I heard by the band; how great it is. We're introduced to the album with what would seem to be a calm sounding jazz intro, before bursting into a mental breakdown of unknown proportions, wailing trumpets and all. That's probably the most in-depth description of all the songs you'll get in this review though, I can't describe it much more than a great song that any fan of metal, jazz or prog should hear.

The Unpoetic Circle (Bottle Green): 8.5/10
Do you play drums? I don't. But I'm sure anyone who does would fall in love with this from the start if I'm the one being asked. Bottle Green's guitars seem to sound deeper when distorted than that of Pearl Grey, and the vocals much more ethereal. As usual, the backing during clean parts create a nice atmosphere. My favorite parts of the song are from about 2:00 to 2:53, it's a nice little funky section that ends sounding like a track managers play at Wal-Mart. A great song that builds both emotionally and musically, go listen now.

Labyrinthe (Crimson): 9/10
Do you play bass? I do. There's a little solo in the latter part of this song, but I won't be touching on that. You'll have to hear it for yourself. I can't really sum this one up accurately, it speaks for itself I think, but one section (The breakdown..?) is very nice. The song builds until a little freeform session before transitioning to a meditative riff that sounds like something I'd expect hearing in the halls of a fancy library that used to be a cathedral. It's at 2:50.

Praha (Ancient Gold): 7.9/10
THE TRUMPET RETURNS!! This peice (is what all true warriors strive for) isn't really a metal tune, or something you'd expect that punk who sits next to you in Geometry to have blasting from his earbuds-OH WAIT IT'S GONNA GET-Nope, it's still quiet. But if you're listening to Jazz-metal, you're probably more classy than that kid anyway. He's probably listening to Bullet for my Valentine. Uh...Enough of that little flame war (and appologies to BFMV fans.) The song does pick up, but I can't give you a specific time. It's almost always intense, but only heavy at some parts. It's like watching a suspenseful movie, the calm parts are probably more hardcore than the actively nerve-wracking ones yet you still know what's going to happen, just not where or when.

The Picture (Bordeaux): 8.4/10
INTRO IS LOVE. Here we are, this nice synth, sounds like we're gonna get thrown into something like Deathbox by Mnemic. But what do we get? MORE JAZZ!! YEAH!!!...To be fair thought, it's heavy enough. The Picture's heavier parts are more groovy than other tracks, which is always a bonus; there's more speedy, thrashy-type riffs and that ethereal presence is brought back for us, with some bass slapping and a lot of reverb. When the synth is present, it's the most unique selection from the album, areas lacking the keyboards are a bit...Lacking.

Ruins (Deep Blue and Violet): 8.9/10
The only title with more than one color. Good news for death metal fans, this is where you're immediately submersed in the heaviness these crazy Italians had to offer in '03. Clanky cymbals, spastic (Yet audible) bass, droning screams and all. Hard do describe, find the song on YouTube and have a listen.

Ironical Communication (Amber): 9/10
The Jazz is back, so are the synths...AND THE TRUMPET :D. Then heavy, lotta heavy. D:. So far, I'd say this is the heaviest on here. and even harder to tell about than Deep Blue and Violet up there...huh. It changes around enough and keeps moving to as many places as it needs to to keep things interesing, and not being annoying. Funny ending too.

My Glassy Shelter (Dirty White): 8.3/10
Heavy. Then not heavy. Then ascends to heavy. Yeah. The bass at some parts reminds me a bit of music from Sonic the Hedgehog, and the prog part of The Blacklight Machine by Frost*. Very nice clean vocal bounces, proggy bass supports, dissonant and doomy guitars where needed.

The Other's Touch (Amaranth): 9.1/10
I came.

OVERALL: 9.4; Excellent
This is the only album I've heard of these guys in its entirety, and I gotta tell you it's a treat. I wouldn't say it has universal appeal, it certainly doesn't. It's possible the 3 people who read this won't like any of these songs, but anyone who is already knowledgeable in the styles encompassed (and open-minded enough to receive it) should love it.

---------------

The scores I give these songs will go UP over time, the more I listen to them the more I'll notice and start to enjoy them more. This is what I give them at current time.

            -Шашки (Checkers)

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A neat band I found

I happened to stumble across Anubis Gate while watching YouTube videos. Sounds pretty great. Check em out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_MnU_reZco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ilud2vYs44


Let me know what you think of them in the comments.