One year and six days after they launched their last album, let's talk about Papa Roach - Part 7

So this is it, the moment we've been expecting: Papa Roach's latest album review, "The Connection".

This one, as with "Metamorphosis", starts with an Intro song which, like in "Days of War", also sets the tone for the album. It says "revolution" like "Days of War", but using more electric sounds, which, as we progress through the album, we see that that is the set-up indeed.

When I first listen to the album, not really paying the attention it deserved, I didn't liked it. All the electric sound effects in "Still Swinging", "Silence is the Enemy", "Walking Dead" (all three which, btw, mark the return of "revolution songs", hence the importance of breaking down Papa Roach to styles before reviewing this album) and, most of all, "Leader of the Broken Hearts" sounded like all the modern pop-stars songs. But then I saw beyond it and, like I said, the use of these electric sounds are a modernization of their style, since they once also used electric styles that were mainstream and cheesy at the time.

That would be the main problem with the album and once you realize it is not a problem, you can start enjoying to what may very well be their best album. "Still Swinging" is a shout out to their classics, along with "Won't Let Up", bringing back rap verses, while "Not Beautiful" is awesome because it is heavy and has a "Broken Home"/"She Loves Me Not" style rap, during the bridge I mean.

The album has all of the song styles I mentioned in the other albuns, being a culmination of what they have been growing to be.

Jacoby's voice is better than ever in most of the songs like "Wish You Never Met Me", "Leader of the Broken Hearts" and "Give Me Back My Life". I also love how deep the lyrics were in "Leader of the Broken Hearts", I only got to know its meaning after watching the video.

As a band, I think they reach a high point specially during the song "Where Didi The Angels Go", which is, in my opinion, their heaviest song. I mean, God, look at that riff! Also, those screams at the end, holy shit, what a great song.

That face in the vid though

Also, their love for zombies really starts to show at this point. Not only did they have a song in which they said the title of the most famous zombie game ever like 10 times, they went to name a song after the most famous zombies series, "Walking Dead", which isn't about zombies, but indeed a "revolution song", at some point. On that note, I think the song could have been heavier instrumentally, lyrically it was really good. Also, "Still Swinging" 's video has zombies being blown up by energy blasts.

To finish up this long long article that led up to this great album, a negative thing: Why would you end up the album with "As Far As I Remember"? Actually the end of the song is great for the end of the album, but the rest is not! It's too slow of an end for a fast paced album! You should have there "Silence Is The Enemy", to finish it up with a "revolution song"! Hell yeah!

So this is it guys, finally done. I hope you enjoyed this and, if you were not a fan already, I hope you got to understand Papa Roach at least a bit like me. As a bonus, here's a promo pic of them looking good - but covered in white gooey stuff.

Me out.

PS: THERE. A seven piece article! I do think my reward should be a concert here in Portugal! Please..?

One year and five days after they launched their last album, let's talk about Papa Roach - Part 6

It's "Time for Annihalation"! See what I did there?

First of all, bassist Tobin Esperance should be quoted, to put this album in context: "We put out five major label, full-length records, and we were transitioning from a major label, going independent, and we wanted to do something different [...] we'd always talked about doing a live record, and it turned into 'let's add a couple of bonus songs' [...] and now it's half live, half new songs and it's kind of the past and present of Papa Roach, and I think it's a good representation and a good reminder of what this band's about, [...] and it gives you a look at where our sound can go."

That being said, the argument of them being lazy and not making a full album would be nonsense, since they were kind enough to include new songs in what would be a live only album.

First we'll talk about the Live part. The song selection could be heavier, but it is very good overall, since they are all hits. Also, it's great to hear them play, how they matured over the years, even though Jacoby still (and always will - I'm not complaining) does those mentions like "This song comes from the fucking heart" and "I love these guys", when referring to the band. I actually like it. The thing that bugs me in this part is that there is a second guitar, but the band only has one. And after a quick googling I couldn't find out why. So either they had another guy helping out or it was on playback to make the song more full and powerful. I don't really like any of the options, but oh well.

As for the new songs, they are pretty awesome, everyone of them different and each has its own Papa Roach style. No "revolution songs" though, which is kind of disappointing. You have the "betrayal song", the "I Almost Told You That I Love You song", the "me against the world song", the ballad and the "self-struggle song". I could go without the song that heavily hints sex and have a revolution one instead...

I'll start by that one, "One Track Mind". I honestly think it's the most "meh" song of the five, the one you feel like you've heard before and the one with the most boring lyrics. "Burn" is pretty awesome, has a pretty powerful chorus and the verse is sung with hate, you can feel it. It also has that electronic start which will be important for the culmination of this article. "The Enemy" is great actually, for me it's the best "self-struggle" one of them all. Both lyrically and instrumentally; specially the bass. I also think it makes a great transition from the new songs to the live part of the album.

The ballad, "No Matter What" is very good too and all the few flaws that it may have, the acoustic (acoustic of a ballad!) version gets rid of them and it gets really great to hear it as the slow song that it is.

Finally there's "Kick In The Teeth". For me this is the most important song of the album. I talked of how "Burn" uses those electronics, but "Kick In The Teeth" make them a real part of the song, like an extra instrument that is always there. If you think about it, Papa Roach did that in the start, only electronic sound then was different from electronic sound now, so for me what "Kick In The Teeth" is is a modern version of old Papa Roach, mostly since it is "me against the world" style of song. And the song gets even more important since "The Connection", their latest album, uses that premise... But we'll get to that later, won't we?

PS: I'll Kick you In The Teeth if you don't come here?

One year and four days after they launched their last album, let's talk about Papa Roach - Part 5

We now advance to the first album they did without founding drummer, Dave Buckner. To fill up the spot came in Tony Palermo and I must say that he came out pretty strong, being that said album is "Metamorphosis".

"Metamorphosis" is brutal. It's everything that "Getting Away With Murder" and "The Paramour Sessions" wanted to be, and you know I don't consider those two bad, I even consider them great.

It's the first album to have an "Intro" song, those songs that last one minute plus something. And I got to say, they chose well. "Days of War" pretty much sets up the rest of the album, puts it in context, in only that one minute. You don't have words, but the title of the song and the instruments all scream "REVOLUTION".

That's right. "Revolution songs" were back.

Right after Tony showed off his skills mashing the drum-set in "Days of War", the awesome guitar line of "Change or Die" starts to play and the first words you hear, while alreay hype from Jerry's magic, are an exciting "LET'S GOOOOOO". Not original, I know, but it goes so well with the song that you go along. So that is the first "revolution song" of the album. It's different from the old Nu Metal revolution like in "Between Angels and Insects", but this still works and it felt good knowing that they were back to spreading ideals. Besides, "Change or Die" is a really powerful song, I can't imagine how exciting and tiring at the same time it is to sing it all for Jacoby.

Then we have another single, "Hollywood Whore". I love the guitar riff and the ending, Jacoby goes ape shit and starts screaming and at the end acts like a maniac with the line "Don't let the door hit you where the Good Lord split you honey", laughing maniacally right after.

"I Almost You That I Love You" was always weird for me. It has great vocals, great instrumentals, but it's style doesn't fit in with the rest. Sure, isn't the first time they talked about sex, but never like in this song! Well, rockstars will be rockstars.

We have then another song on self-struggle, a style that we're used to at this point, "Lifeline". It's comparable to "Scars" in a way that it's not slow but it is slow, making it a great song to hear when in the mood.

Then three more (not straight) "revolution songs". Man they were on fire! And I got to say, putting "March Out Of The Darkness" right before "Into The Light" was a pretty great move. Same happens to the album beginning with "Days of War" and (almost) ending with "Nights of Love".

Being used to the other albuns, this one startles you when you are getting near the end and two slow songs come straight. Like in "Reckless", "Carry Me" holds a lot of meaning for me, but I think it should be more in the middle.

The last track though, takes that of our mind. "State of Emergency" is GREAT as a song and even greater as a closer. It really goes with the flow that post-apocalyptic ending with the guitar sounding like a melodic distress siren far away and the sounds of someone talking on a radio... Really really great. Also, the song makes me want to kill zombies in Left 4 Dead. No wonder, since they seem like  they desperatly want to make the soundtrack of the game by saying "Left for dead" like four times just before the song ends.

So like that ends the, in my opinion, heaviest Papa Roach album at this point, which is always good. It's good that they come back to "revolution songs" but at the same time bad because they left it in the first place. Also, always struck me odd the way that they start "Change or Die" with "This is a battle call / To one to all" and "Into The Light" with "This is a warning / My final warning". I don't know, seemed similar, don't know why.

Kuddos PRoach, this is a really great one.

Unfortunatly this album came with their worst looks. Tony is the one who looks best, and he's just like "Hey, I'm here"

Bah look at this! Mr. Dick ('cause I'm nasty) looks like that guy from Escape The Fate, ugh

PS: Keeping on insiting on you guys coming heeeeere!

One year and three days after they launched their last album, let's talk about Papa Roach - Part 4

Two in one day! How cool am I?

"The Paramour Sessions" continued the path that "Getting Away With Murder" carved for Papa Roach.

This album is the same style as "GAWM", as so, there the "heh" songs and the awesome ones. Also, it's in this album that you can confirm Papa Roach's ability to get you hype. And by hype I mean FUCKING HYPE. They always did with songs like "Last Resort", "She Loves Me Not" and "Getting Away With Murder", but then comes "The Paramour Sessions", opening with "To Be Loved" which blows your fucking head off right off the bat.

As with previous album, this one focuses on self-struggle and one's goals and mainly on relationship problems. "Forever" is a great ballad, really well sung and heart-felt in the chorus and towards the end. "Time Is Running Out" is really exciting, getting me pumped every time with those chants in the beginning and "My Heart Is A Fist" may very well be the most underrated Papa Roach song, because you don't hear it anywhere and it's simply brutal. Out of the album I'd say it's the most heart-felt, you hear all these metaphors of how he's down in a hole, hear a powerful, simple chorus but then all of a sudden you have a guy pissed off and feeling powerless, screaming at God. I can only imagine Jacoby on his knees while screaming (obviously) "I SEE YOU ON YOUR CLOUD / LOOKING DOWN! / I'M ON MY KNEES TO PRAY / BUT YOU DON'T NOTICE ME". "Brilliant" is the word.

I think this album is the weakest of all (not as in "not good") and this is why: The ending. I believe a really good album has to maintain it's hype, being the hype low or high. If you have slow songs, you have to scatter them so the album doesn't lose it's hype. But on "Paramour Sessions" you get three slow songs to end it. I love "Reckless", it even has a special meaning to me, "The Fire" is a song I can do without and "Roses On My Grave" maybe has a special meaning for them, but I just thing all these should be scattered around the album. I said this about "GAWM" and "Do or Die" wasn't slow, so it gets even worse here. This one should have ended with "My Heart Is A Fist", no doubt.

So this is, for me, their "less good" album, even though I love most of the songs. Then again, I'm a huge fan and love most of all songs. Still, the reasons are here.

And I must say, I don't like Jacoby's visual here... Jerry looks cool though, and Dave Buckner, too. He was a very good drummer for their first movement and it was sad this was his last album. Even so, no complaints from Tony Palermo.

PS: Hey Tony, I had your back just now, please convince the guys to come to Portugal!

What's national is good

I don't know at what point the portuguese band Pushed Mind is recognized outside their country, but I feel it isn't enough. And there are bands like these in every country, but this one I feel I can give a push, so here goes.

Pushed Mind is a Metalcore/Heavy Metal/Death Metal... Damn, Sometimes I'm not very good with styles. In my own knowledge I'd place them in between those three. I'll say they did what only pros do (and not every pro), found a balance between screaming dark vocals and the instruments that go along, giving you a confortable feel of fucking metal.

From an amateur band (since they're starting) you'd maybe expect an harsh sound, something that at times would make you cringe or shudder. At least that would happen to some metal fans when listening to some hardcore/metalcore songs. But no, Pushed Mind found the balance and I, for one, just listened to their whole album while thinking "this is good" as in the most sincere "this is good" I've ever thought.

Comparing it to renowned metal band Avenged Sevenfold - and, as you know, one of my favourites -, which started out as Metalcore with "Sounding The Seventh Trumpet" I can honestly say that their first album "Bête Noir" is a better debut in the genre that "Sounding The Seventh Trumpet", just to make you understand the comparison I made earlier.

Speaking of their album, they released it. It's called "Bête Noir", Dark Beast, in english. 11 songs, 5 minutes average, great, clean sound, this is the start of every known band. You can listen to the album and, without any background, you wouldn't say it was a first.

They promoted the album at bandcamp.com, so I'll just leave the site HERE so you can listen to it. 

So this is it, I've done what I think I should. I hope they get the recognition they deserve and wish all the luck to Pushed Mind.

Me out.

One year and three days after they launched their last album, let's talk about Papa Roach - Part 3

You must have guessed by now that we're going to talk about Papa Roach's third album, "Getting Away With Murder".

This was a huge turning point for Papa Roach. As I said before, "Lovehatetragedy" opened the doors for the world of hard rock to them and they stepped right in with this new album. They dropped the Nu Metal act, no more rap, no more revolution, just straight feels and frontal attacks.

And in "frontal attacks" we have very little, because I am only refering to the song "Tyranny of Normality", that talks about the media. Very good lyrics, the song is powerful, but - don't know why - it doesn't moves me. Good song, I listen to it, but heh.

As that song, this album brought other songs that don't get me as hype as the rest, which usually didn't happen in the other two albuns. "Blanket of Fear" and "Stop Looking Start Seeing" are the ones I talk about. But hey, 3 songs out of twelve? Not bad at all.

The album starts off with "Blood", a song about betrayal, setting the mood - lyrically speaking - for the rest of the album. The song itself is a great opener, starts off slow for a few words, then it gets fast and then they wreck it all up when Jacoby starts screaming and the chords and drums get faster.

Then "Stop Looking Start Seeing" introduces a new theme that would become recorrent in Papa Roach songs with the lines "My enemy is not alone / In the mirror there's a stranger". Self-struggle and trying to fight yourself out of the whole you dug yourself. You see it at least two more times in "Be Free" and "Take Me".

Then there are the hits, "Getting Away With Murder" and "Scars". Both songs are really really great, both talk of suffering you caused on yourself because of others. In the album titled they talk about not being able to stop the punishment of a relationship, walking the line where you want out but you will never want out. This, along with the great bass line, the whispering "getting away getting away" and then the repetition of the first verse but while screaming makes for a great song. As for "Scars", it isn't really a ballad but it isn't really a fast song, so it stands on the line that you like to hear when you're both sad and angry, which is, I think, just what they wanted, when talking about being dragged to the bottom by someone who you were just trying to help.

To finish, I think they could have chosen a stronger closing song, even though "Do or Die" is one of my favourites. Like "Take Me", it would have been good. But you can see from the lyrics that "Do or Die" holds a meaning for them, so maybe that's that.

An album of dare, "Getting Away With Murder" marked the definitive road of Papa Roach, being a very good album in itself.

Me out.

PS: Still waiting here for you, guys.

One year and two days after they launched their last album, let's talk about Papa Roach - Part 2

Obviously on Part 2 of this post I'll talk about "Lovehatetragedy", Papa Roach's second album.

First of all, what a creepy ass cover!

Second, yes, it was a great album. "She Loves Me Not" makes it a great album on itself! But let's break it up, shall we?

In this second album, PRoach lost their touch or will of "revolution songs". Maybe "Code of Energy" is kind of a shout out to the way world treats people, but I think I'm on a stretch here. To add to that, the "suffering songs" still exist but they turned the attention from general suffering like in "Last Resort" and "Never Enough" to the suffering in a relationship ("She Loves Me Not", "Decompression Period"...) and not only are all the songs trully heart-felt, so much that you can hear the feels, but they also connected with the fans, like they did with "Infest". To prove the "heart-feltness", Jacoby was said to be having problems with his now long-time wife, Kelly, during the writting of the albums. Don't worry, she did love you after all!

This album opened doors to what Papa Roach would become. Unfortunatly, it was the last to have them awesome Jacoby-rap parts until "The Connection". But it still opened the doors to a more brutal sound, instrumentally speaking and lyrically Papa Roach started to focus on the relationship suffering, suffering of close ones, being one against the world (not in a revolution way) and simply fucking things up with music ("M-80", the openning track).

So awesome sound, awesome lyrics, awesome rap parts, that can only make an awesome album. Very good one.

Also, Jacoby was blonde with short hair.

Me out.

PS: You guys have to come to Portugal. Seriously.

One year and one day after they launched their last album, let's talk about Papa Roach - Part 1

One year and a day ago Papa Roach launched their latest album, "The Connection". I intend to review it, but I think "The Connection" is better understood if given a little backstory. Not that it isn't a bad album in itself, just that it is better understood.

Papa Roach started around the 90's Nu Metal Era, so naturally most of their EP's and their first album "Infest" were heavily influenced by the trend.

"Infest" came out in 2000 and, as I said, it came with the trend. Linkin Park, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit and P.O.D. (for a while now, at the time) were doing it, so Papa Roach became "one more". It wasn't original, no. But hell, it had soul. You could hear it in every riff, every word. That shifty, crazy character, Jacoby, screaming at the world not to sell music, but to be heard. To get a message passed on.

The album has two concepts: In one of the concepts the band shouts at the world, tries to wake it up, tries to get people to see what's wrong. Those I will refer to as the "revolution songs". Then there is the concept of self-hatred, not being able to cope with pain. Those will be the "suffering songs".

At the time, "suffering songs" were the mainstream, so that was a plus for them. I'm not saying that the other bands did it for the songs or for the money, but something about most of "Infest" 's "suffering songs" was special. Maybe because it was more raw, more like "Here, this happened and I'm screaming about it to a mic. Guys, you know the story too, put together some riffs to go along and we're good.". "Last Resort" is like a fucking anthem and it's just Jacoby doing a big man's voice, Jerry with a great riff and then it all explodes into awesome towards the end. "Broken Home", too, I bet many kids crying during the year of 2000 while listening to that song and saying "this is me, this is me".

The "revolution songs" are great. I mean, who the fuck are "Papa Roach" to come here and tell people to wake up? But they didn't care, they did it anyway. And so "Infest" and "Between Angels and Insects" came along, with some of the most powerful lyrics to the day. They were ready to make the change, they had it planned on their heads. "My name's Coby Dick / Mr. Dick if you're nasty / Rock a mic with a voice that's grapsy / 'Cause I'm poetic in my operations / My God given talent is to rock all the nations". I mean common! They were ready for it.

The young face of crazy revolution

So yeah, "Infest" was a fucking great album. Only one slow song (and it still rocks) and even has an hidden track, which I think it's awesome (and you don't have to wait 7 fucking minutes for it like with "Slipknot" to hear "Eyegore" after "Scisors"), both the idea of a hidden track and the track itself, "Tightrope". I like the original better, but hey.

This album introduced us P Roach, La Cucaracha and their mottos, "suffering" and "revolution". We'll get deeper into that afterwards. For today we stick with "Infest".

Me out.

PS: Come to Portugal, for fuck's sake, it's the third time you've come to Europe IN ONE YEAR and you haven't passed by. I'll keep bugging you with this.

Sign of the Times - 1 Year and 6 days later, let's review the latest Three Days Grace album

I think that one year later it's as good a time as ever to review an album. Think of it as an anniversary review (six days late, sorry about that TDG).

Let's talk about the band first. I like Three Days Grace, a lot. They're simple, straight up "let's put our anger into this" guys. All of the songs are sad or angry. They're all about situations you relate to at some point in your life, maybe some people relate more than others.

They've had huge hits like the obvious "I Hate Everything About You", "Animal I Have Become" and "Riot" (the latter without a gay chorus, *wink* *wink* Bullet For My Valentine) and all the other songs, specially from "Three Days Grace" and "One-X" are great and I love listening to them, no matter what mood I'm in.

Then there came "Life Starts Now". I like the album too, but it's not the 5* the others were. There are some songs that are "meeeh", like "The Good Life" and "Going Down", while there are others that are as sad as ever "Last to Know"!!!) and others that I love ("Lost In You", "Break", "Bully" and others).

So we've come to "Transit of Venus", which I think followed the steps of the album before it. So I can't really complain. But this one has less "really great" songs. They're all just "great". It starts fucking awesome, with "Sign of the Times" where Adam Gontier starts of slow and you're listening carefully without knowing what to expect and then BAM, he blows you away with his amazing voice and an exploding guitar riff. "Chalk Outline" is also great, though it made me think. I couldn't figure out whether that intro riff was really distorted guitar or something more dubstep-ish. Even before I tried to look it up I figured "Fuck it, rocks anyway". And yeah, "Chalk Outline" may very well be the best song on the album.

Like I said, no "really great" songs in the album, but that doesn't change the fact that the album is pratically made of "great" songs. The only ones I don't think are great are "Expectations" and "Broken Glass", something doesn't sit right with me with their verses and lyrics. So, if out of 13 songs, 2 are less good (because they aren't bad), that's awesome.

To kick it off, it's a shame Adam Gontier left the band after the album. I don't really know if it would be fair to say that not only his voice but himself was the spirit of the group, so I won't say it. But you'll know part of me thinks it was. Here's hoping Three Days Grace will still make it and keep being awesome and true as they always were with Adam. Best of luck and rock on!

Me out.

Hail To The King

Take a look at the new stage set-up for the tour on Avenged Sevenfold's most recent album!

Holy Confessions - Let's talk about Avenged Sevenfold's uprising

Avenged Sevenfold... What a great band! If I am to rank the bands I like, these guys would be second, behind the never-reachable Metallica.

Just to start this off, I will tell you this: This is the only band in a very long while that had caused the Metallica effect on the metal audience: everybody loves them, but everybody hates them. The kind of band that is so popular that in every debate there are people that hate them and others that love them, both to the extreme. If they managed to pull a Metallica effect, being that Metallica are by many considered the Metal Gods, that can only be good.

There is another thing that has to be discussed before dissing on people that say that Avenged Sevenfold are the next Metal Gods. That thing is that people tend to forget what Metal is. They're all like "what they're Metal? What about Slayer? What about those other bands that don't get recognition like Black Dhalia Murder? They're so much heavier! A7x are pussies compared to them!". Metal is Metal and Avenged Sevenfold are Metal. They're not Thrash Metal, they're not even Heavy Metal anymore, they're not Hardcore for sure. So yeah, they are a great METAL band.

For the sake of comparing to the only other band considered the Metal Gods, like I've been doing, Metallica were considered Metal because went through Thrash to Heavy to Metal to Alternative to Metal to Heavy. So as icons as they were and for that slow Era they had they are considered The Metal Gods. Look at A7x now: They went through Metalcore to Heavy to pure Metal (having some trouble classifying the Self-Titled Album, but Nightmare and Hail to the King are pure Metal), so I think considering the best recent Metal band isn't as farfetched as the haters from the Metal community seem to think.

Now for their much deserved uprising. I think it's deserved because they are all great musicians, exceptional ones, in the case of Matt Shadows, Synyster Gates and the late Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan. Matt has one of the best voices in the rock industry, comparable to idols like Axl Rose in his prime, Synyster is a great guitarist and, until the time I heard they were being considered the "future Metal Gods", I thought he was pretty underrated and The Rev was a great drummer and if you listen to any (ANY, even the Self-Titled) album he made with the band you'll have to agree that it's not just because he passed away that we fans say he was great. And his singing, holy shit.

They have been improving from album to album (except the Self-Titled, was a bit of a step back but I still like it, specially because it includes some of their most iconic songs). Ranking it, I'd say that the Debut album is the one I like the least (because I'm not really into metalcore, but I still listen to it and enjoy it), then Self-Titled, then Waking the Fallen, City of Evil, Nightmare and Hail to the King (this one being my favourite is another discussion that I'll probably get to, eventually). So as a band that changes their style every single album (seriously, none of the albums are the same) I think it's good that they can create such good material while still trying to find what they want, where they want to settle. That being said, we can be sure they have lots more to give until reaching full potential, so it's only right they get the recognition that they're getting now and be considered the "future Metal Gods", while we patiently look forward as they bless us with their music.

Touring, of course, is definitely an aspect to evaluate when saying that a band is good or bad. I got to say I like their live performances, their show, their connection to the crowd. Matt can sing almost perfectly live, except for the screaming of Waking the Fallen (which sucks, but he grew, voice changed, had cirurgy, yeah yeah; they only play Unholy Confession anyway, so...), Johnny has a good, chilled presence, Zacky and Syn play very well live, specially giving the difficulty degree of some of their riffs and the harmonies and they're a great match, that lefty-righty back-to-back is epic (maybe not original, but still epic) and Arin can play very well The Rev's parts and has a good presence, specially in this last tour - I guess he's feeling more secure, which is great. I also love this thing they did when I saw them live, June 23rd 2011, when it was The Rev's singing parts, they playback'd them while Matt pointed to the sky. Beautiful.

Unfortunetly they're not perfect, so I can't only say good things. There are minor things, like Lost's auto-tune (they were experimenting, every band does it at some point, trying not to get repetitive, thank God they didn't do it again), their appearance (I honestly never thought that was such a big deal, but many of the haters seem to only talk about how they dress and are wannabes and they hide their music with appearance, bah. One note though: Matt - The solution for your long hair was shave it all, not only on the sides; and Syn - you had the perfect Vegeta hair, why would you shave the sides too? :( ) and stuff like that.

No, I'm going to focus on more important things like their concerts. I said I liked their live performances and the show they put on, but I don't actually like their concerts and it breaks my heart to say so. But I can't bring myself to like a concert from a band I love that they go and play 13 songs, each averaging 5 minutes. Common! Because of that stupid thing of theirs they're even forced to leave out classics that they should play like Almost Easy, sometimes in this last tour Beast and the Harlot, Second Heartbeat and even (thought I'm glad that, if it's only 13 songs, they put this one out) A Little Piece of Heaven.

Common guys, if you wanna step it up you gotta actually step it up! All the grow ups are doing it, it's time you've showed everyone what you can do.

To finish it up, just something I noticed (not their fault, but I feel I have to mention it), they may be "future Metal Gods", but when on the same stage that Thrash Masters and Heavy Metal Kings, Slayer and Iron Maiden, there's no way Avenged Sevenfold are in the middle, like in Rock in Rio 2013, in Brazil. "Future" is the key word here and as much as I liked them they are still the new guys.

Still, to finish it off: You go boys! I want the word "future" out of your "future Metal Gods" title soon alright?!

Me out.

The Young Oldies

Today I was talking about this song... Man what a great band. Look at them, they take a life problem and instead of being all winey and sad they this excellent, catchy song with that great voice melody that we all love to sing and that freaking bass line...

Way to go Offspring!

Damn you, non-fully-customizable post background!

So I can't put the post background transparent enough for you to see the background image, I can only make it so you see to much of it and can't read. Since I'm choosing it's better for you to read my bollocks, I'll post the image here and you can see my favourite bands, probably the ones I'll talk about the most (and I must say, it's a pretty good image that I put together):

To Buddy

Man, I didn't even know a person could get so attached to a fish. And it wasn't even at my house!

Too bad Buddy's gone, I liked teasing him and make him dance in the fish bowl and boy did he rocked with me when I played Guitar Hero there in front of him!

You go rock the skies Buddy! Goodbye.

PS: Don't get used to this kind of post, but I had to do this, 'cause I'm gonna miss the little blue bastard.

My take on Through The Never (Obvious Spoilers are Obvious)

Metallica is my favourite band. You should know that. I love all of them, band members, material, shows; from the heavy road made by a van filled with instruments while on tour shoving Metal Up people's Asses, through the bumpy road of (Re)Load and St. Anger and up until now with gigantic tours travelled by jetplanes with their names on them, instead of said old van. I love Kill 'Em All for its bestiallity, Ride, Master, Justice and Magnetic for their power, Black for the straight-forwardness and Load, ReLoad and St. Anger for their words.

That being said, of course I loved a movie which was basically a concert of my favourite band, watching it on IMAX 3D, screen perfectly aligned with my sight and sound bursting through my ears making me think I was deaf whenever the movie went silent.

But let's face it. We all wanna know what the fuck was going on in between the concert. I'm saying it wasn't entertaining, hell, it was anything but that. But still, seriously, what the fuck went down? This is my take on what happened.

So Trip is their roadie, he picks up things for Metallica (cool job, I think). We see him first arriving at the arena, he sees James of his car leaving a trail of badassery in the shape of fire, Kirk talking to a guy holding a guitar dripping blood, Rob fucking up a room (which made me laugh more than it should, I couldn't stop talking about it. I MEAN, THE CEILING WAS CRUMBLING, HOW COOL IS THAT?!) and Lars giving him a look, reenforcing (probably ironically, since I recently read he was an awesome guy) the image that people have of him being an asswipe.

He then starts enjoying the concert, then gets called to pick up something very important for Metallica, "something they need", gets to the car, swallows a pill and, supposely, starts tripping balls, the world goes to shit, rioters fight police officers, an horseman hangs people and fights him, he grabs the "thing they need", the bag, he burns himself, makes friends with a walking doll and then fucks up an entire city with three slams of a sledgehammer, before delivering the package. Jesus Christ.

So what to make of it? In my theory, the story is still as fucked up as it seemed in the last paragraph, I was only able to relate it to the moive/concert.

The song order makes the story.

Probably I'm going to be wrong in a lot of ways and make some big big stretches. But hey, at least I tried?

Creeping Death: Intro for the concert, not related to the story/The very maximum, introduction the Doll, hanging on the van's mirror by the song's ending. (stretch)

For Whom The Bell Tolls: If I remember right, we almost don't see Trip in this one, only see him leave the garage. I think he takes the pill here? If he does, it helps my theory. It may mean that "the bell started tolling" for him, meaning his time was coming. And though he didn't die, well, I'm sure he didn't expect what happened.

Fuel: We see Trip on a time limit, looking at the clock, going full throttle on a road he doesn't even notice it's empty. So the song is about adrenaline, speed, I think it makes sense.

Ride the Lightning: The song is about both a death sentence (electric chair, duh) and a nightmare (Waken by horrid scream/Freed from this frightning dream) and it is around this time he gets hit by another car, falling in slow motion for the rest of the song. So the death sentence part because it was a serious accident and the nightmare part because that's where his real adventure begins.

One: I don't know if I'm making a stretch or not here, but I won't always go for the deep meaning of the songs, like in One, which is based on the novel Johny Got His Gun. In this one, I only took the litteral meaning of the word and a piece of the lyrics. Because in this part Trip finally realises he's alone and something is wrong (Now the world is gone I'm just One). He also sees a horse dragging a cop and looking into his soul.

The Memory Remains: This one keeps me up at night, this is the part he sees the great mob running but continues to follow his path. Probably just the "Gone insane" part? Dunno, big stretch.

Wherever I May Roam Intro: There are two ways this one can go: Either it meant that he roamed and ended up being in between a giant group of rioters and a giant group of cops while a horseman in a gas mask appears or it was just a great intro for ending up being in between a giant group of rioters and a giant group of cops while a horseman in a gas mask appears. My money is on the second one.

Cyanide: This is where we get to know the horseman. He hangs one of his own on a lamp post and then starts chasing Trip. So my guess is (Death angel's kiss/Brings final bliss/.../Your death black wings/.../A concrete angel lit right down) that he was an angel of death. Trip loses The Doll at this point.

...And Justice For All (please do read this with James' voice saying it before the solo, in the movie. I can't stop thinking about it because it was so awesome): We see the Angel of Death's justice: hanging around people in bridges and lamp posts. Although I may not be used the right words to make you see it, I don't think it is a stretch. Trip finds The Bag at this point.

Master of Puppets: Well, we see a group of rioters follow Trip by the horseman's command, how much more of a Master for them Puppets can you be?

Battery: The whole damn song is about brute power and ripping apart people and being crazy. And we hear this while TRIP SETS HIMSELF ON FIRE AND STARTS KICKING AND PUNCHING PEOPLE. So yeah, fucking Battery.

Nothing Else Matters: While this is a song that we think of when you're with your Significant Other or thinking about your love interest, I think I can make the stretch of a soft song meaning that Trip survived the burns and the beating, saved by The Doll. So yeah, a bit of a stretch, but I can live with this one.

Enter Sandman: I think I'll have a hard time explaining this one. This is during the final bout, the confrontation between Trip and the Angel of Death. Was it easy? No, it was a nightmare. And what does Enter Sandman sepaks of? Nightmares, bad dreams. It also helps that this is always Metallica's final song in the shows, not counting the encores. So I think it adds up. The Doll plays a big part here, but I don't remember it 100%.

Trip's energy slams in the dream world were so powerful that they fucked up Metallica's stage and burnt a crew member (even though they continued playing). So Angel of Death defeated he can go back to the concert and deliver The Bag.

It's convenient that Trip is on his way with The Bag while James says the stage reminds him of Kill 'Em All and they play Metallica's fucking debut song:

Hit the Lights: The song is played on dim lights, poor environment, like their first shows, while The Bag is on his way to the stage.

The song ends and Trip delivers The Bag, takes a sit. Spotlight on The Bag. BAM, roll credits, Orion, everybody goes "what the fuck man?".

Orion: This one has a theory that people seem to love and that includes me. The Bag, spotlight on it, Orion's (the song with the most awesome Bass on the Universe) bass starting to play... Yes, I think The Bag is Cliff Burton, the late Metallica's Bass Player, the Bass Guru and revolutionary. "Something the band needs", eh... Well, puts a smile on my face!

I think Rob is awesome and he is definetly part of Metallica. That's why I like to think of "Something they need" in the way of missing and needing him as a friend, as a person, as their mate and not only as their bass player. So yeah Cliff, I hope you also got the message. I'm sure they made sure you get it anyway.
BONUS: U.S.A. release date was on the anniversary of Cliff's passing. Coincidence? (R.I.P. Cliff Burton)

So as I said this theory served only to link the "movie" part to the "concert" part. Finding out what The Bag was came out as a bonus. I still don't know what The Doll is supposed to mean, unfortunetly. Maybe it was only the van's ornment and when Trip took the pill it "came to life". I don't know, I'd like something better, more thought through like the rest of the movie.

I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did and I hope you enjoyed the read also!

Me out.

Firstsies

Hello dudes. Hello dudettes.

Welcome to this wonderful shitty corner of the internet where you'll be able to listen (read) to a man's ramblings about music.

I'll try not to be biased and to make interesting articles, so that I don't lose my only friends, you! :D

So yeah, you can start enjoying it starting now!