Monthly Archives: April 2013

Black Sabbath: God’s existence might be in question but Sabbath’s supremacy is not

Ah, Black Sabbath are back(!) with their new single from the album ’13’ due to be released in June. I can’t stop listening to their new song ‘God is Dead?’; Ozzy Osbourne still has a truly unique voice, Mr Iommi’s riffs are perfection, Geezer Butler is as good a bass player as ever and Tommy Clufetos makes an excellent addition to Black Sabbath as their drummer.

The lyrics question the existence of a God, because of all the religious wars in the world, but in the end Ozzy maintains that he believes that God is not dead. If this song is an example of what the new album will be like then I can’t wait to hear it. This song is a great addition to the Sabbath canon and shows that time has not diminished the ability of Black Sabbath to create great music.

Rose

Review: Reckless Love ‘Night on Fire’

I was just checking my Facebook page and the guitarist for Reckless Love posted the video for their new single ‘Night on Fire’ on his page, which of course came up on my timeline. I have a soft spot for this group of Finns; they’re cheerful, I can’t help but sing along to ‘Coconuts’ and ‘Born to rock’. They write catchy, happy metal – they’re Merry Metalheads and I like their first two albums very much. Since that’s the case I thought I’d watch the video.

This is another catchy song that reminds me a lot of their second album, ‘Animal Attraction’ sonically if not lyrically. I like the video too, even better on the second viewing.

I really am going to get on with listening to those new albums now, promise.

Rose

Strip no Alter

And here is the second band that followed me today:

Strip no Alter

A Brazilian band that describes their sound as ‘a straight and powerful cross-over between heavy metal, hardcore, rock ‘n’ roll and old school punk rock’ that is ‘ironic, immoral and politically incorrect’. This three-piece formed in 2008 and immediately produced an EP.

Members

  • Plinio Scambora – vocals/guitar
  • Erick Johnsons – bass
  • Hud Souza – drums

Music

  • EP Voner (2008)
  •  Album The Hell Soundtrack (2011)
  • Digital EP (iTunes only) The Heaven Soundtrack (2011)
  • Album Vertical Smile (2012)

All but the EP, Voner, are available on the band’s website as free downloads.

Websites etc

Opinion?

They’re not bad, ‘Vertical Smile’ is better than ‘The Hell Soundtrack’. I can’t understand what they’re singing about, but the songs grew on me. I can see the innuendo in the album title, and most of the song titles, so I’ll assume that they live up to their boast of being ‘ironic, immoral and politically incorrect’. I might have to listen to the songs a few times to understand what they are about. The band definitely show their metal and punk influences throughout the album ‘Vertical Smile’, getting heavier towards the later tracks.Might be an interesting band to listen to if that’s the sort of music you like.

Now that I’ve finished listening to the bands I have following my Twitter, I’m going to get on with listening to BMTH’s ‘Sempiternal’, since everyone’s been saying how great it is, Sacred Mother Tongue’s ‘Out of Darkness’ since I’ve been wittering for it for days that I want to hear it and I finally got it on Spotify last night, and finally Black Sabbath’s new single ‘God is Dead?’. Ah, Spotify, how I adore thee? Let me count the ways.

Bye,

Rose

Message to Venus

Since bands keep following me on Twitter, and I really need to do some writing right now (I find it therapeutic), I have decided to give in and write about them instead of complaining about it. Two bands followed me today: Message to Venus, from Puerto Rico/Florida and Strip no Alter, from Brazil. This post will be about Message to Venus. Shall we get started?

Message to Venus

Formed in 2009 by Puerto Ricans

  • Jandre Nadal
  • John Feliciano
  • Edgar Ramos
  • JuanMa Font

in Florida.

Contact Details:

  • http://messagetovenus.com
  • Twitter: @MessageToVenus
  • Facebook: Message to Venus
  • noisetrade.com/messagetovenus
  • ‘The Envelope’ is on Spotify

Releases

  • Single ‘Cold & Grey’ March 2010
  • EP ‘The Envelope’ February 2011
  • Album ‘Victims & Villains’ – soon

Opinion?

I actually quite liked their EP; it sounds a lot like 30 Seconds to Mars’ s second album ‘A beautiful lie’. I would recommend it if you like them. Actually, it’s a good EP whether you like Mars or not. Go and have a listen.

Rose

 

Review:Iron Man 3

Robert Downey Jr returns as Tony Stark in iron Man Three. Suffering from PTSD after the events of New York (The Avengers), Tony has hidden himself away in his basement working on the Iron Man suits, all 42 of them. Then a new threat arrives in the form of ‘The Mandarin’; bombs explode unexpectedly and leave no trace of their origin. Everyone is baffled. The past comes back to haunt Tony, and when his friend and former bodyguard, Happy, is injured in one of the explosions, Tony Stark issues a declaration of war.

This is a cracking film; funny, action packed and exciting.  I saw it in 3D, I’m not sure whether the 3D added anything to the film. This film is a great addition to the Marvel-verse family of films, and continues the story on from last year’s Avengers movie. I wait in anticipation for the release of Thor 2: The Dark World in November.

Bye,

Rose

I knew it was a mistake…

…writing about the bands that follow my Twitter because now I have even more following me.

Three more so far this week, all within a day of each other. Here’s what my nosing around the web found.

Art of Dying

Twitter: @ArtOfDying

www.artofdyingmusic.com

Jonny Hetherington – vocals

Greg Bradley – guiar

Tanis Stanley – guitar/vocals

Cale Gontier – bass/vocals

Jeff Brown – drums

This five-piece are from Canada and formed in 2004. They ‘made a conscious effort to be as sonically dynamic as their influences’, alternative rock bands, ‘but approach their songs with a greater sense of optimism.’

Honestly, from reading their comprehensive website, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I wasn’t impressed by what I read. I’m happy to say I was wrong. They have two albums available on Spotify, ‘Art of Dying’ and the acoustic ‘Let the fire burn’. They’re actually not as bad as I thought they would be. I’m not overfond of the acoustic album but I’ve no objections to it staying on my Spotify. Can’t say that I’d ever buy tickets to go see them but if they happened to be at a festival I was at or were supporting another band then I would probably make the effort to go and listen to them.

 

Gone2morrow

Twitter:@gone2morrowfans

http://reverbnation.com/gone2morrow

Facebook: gone2morrowband

YouTube: gone2morrowband

Formed in 2011 by Geo Garcia and Chris Mason, this band describe themselves in their Twitter bio as an ‘established Las Vegas hard rock band’ and list their influences as Sevendust, Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed, Black Sabbath etc

Three tracks available on reverbnation – ‘Lies’, ‘Dead Now’, and ‘Maybe2morrow’.

I watched the video for ‘Dead Now’ on their YouTube channel. Hmm, well I suppose they’re not terrible but I’m not a fan. They’re not as good as their influences but I can definitely hear A7X in there. Meh, not too fussed by this band.

And finally…

Nightland

Twitter: @Nightland_Metal

Facebook: Nightland

YouTube: NightlandOfficial

Soundcloud: nightland (it’s useless – no tracks and no info about the band)

Ludovico Cioffi – vocals/guitar

Filippo Scrima – guitar

Andrea Sangervasi – bass

Francesco Ambrogiani – keyboards

Filippo Cicoria – drums

Their 2012 EP ‘In Solemn Rise’ is on Spotify

More Italian death metal; I thought I’d made it obvious that I’m not a fan of death metal? Oh well, I’m going to be nice and have a look at their stuff on YouTube and listen to the EP on Spotify anyway, just to be fair. Although it’s really not my thing and I can’t tell good death metal from terrible death metal.

Their Twitter bio is very succinct: ‘Epic death metal band from Italy’. Yep, that’s really helpful lads; it’s a good job I found your YouTube channel. The music is definitely epic, almost symphonic – a bit like Nightwish but with no violins and shouting instead of operatic singing. And it was definitely the vocals that I didn’t like, although there were bits that weren’t too bad, positively catchy in places. The video for ‘Diamond Siren’ was actually quite amusing; I have no idea what Mr Cioffi was singing about but random knights appearing and the keyboardist trying to eat his instrument made me giggle inappropriately – pretty certain the audience wasn’t meant to be laughing at that point. I listened to some of the EP; it was okay, I could listen to it for a bit. For the music if not the vocals.

And that’s that for this week.

Coming Soon

Review: Iron Man 3

Review: HIM ‘Tears on Tape’ + the Metal Hammer fanpack – was it worth the price?

Review: The Science of Discworld 4 (waiting for the library to get back to me on this one)

Review: Mercians ‘We Don’t Even Live By The Sea’ EP

Pre-released 1st April 2013 for free down load as MP3’s

Release date 1st May 2013

Available for free download from their website (www.wearemercians.com) from 1st April 2013 – 1st May 2013, after which it will be available for purchase from iTunes.

Short (11 minute) EP showcasing three tracks – ‘Attention All’, ‘Cry Mutiny’ and ‘We Are The Kraken’.

They’re not bad at all; there’s definitely some talent there. Their lyrics are almost punk in sentiment, but stylistically they are very similar to many other young British rock bands, like Young Guns and Don Broco. The tracks grew on me; they weren’t immediately catchy but on repeated listening I found some unusual imagery and fairly sophisticated lyrics (they get extra points for not only knowing what the Kraken is, but for using it as a metaphor in a song).

Go on, have a listen; it won’t cost you anything will it?

 Bye,

Rose

[EDIT: I got a lovely Tweet from these boys last night thanking me for my kind words. (29/05/2013)]

So, another band followed my Twitter today (still have no idea why people do that)

They’re a ‘Norwegian Band currently playing covers. self written material will soon come’, called

Rhyolite

That quote is straight from their Facebook page and is pretty much the only thing on their ‘About’ page. Their Soundcloud isn’t much more helpful either. But they do have a few tracks on it. I listened to their cover of Slipknot’s ‘Snuff’ and their own tracks (without lyrics). They aren’t too bad, but here’s the link for their stuff on Soundcloud if anyone is interested in listening:

And their other details are:

@RhyoliteOFFICIAL on Twitter

http://www.youtube.com/rhyoliteOFFICIAL

https://www.facebook.com/Rhyoliteofficial