Slipknot is one of my all-time favorite bands, in fact for a good while was my all-time favorite, and All Hope Is Gone proves to be their best work yet. Proving to be even heavier and more experimental than their previously released Volume 3: The Subliminal Verses, everything just worked. Even the increase of sung vocals, which most consider to make the album too much like Stone Sour.
The album starts off with a bang with the incredibly beast Execute/Gematria (The Killing Name). I am completely in awe of Gematria. It's pure aggression, treating the listener to anger and politically-charged lyrics. And all this is accompanied by some of the best breakdowns that I have had the pleasure of hearing. Sulfur follows, infusing more melody but still maintaining the momentum that Gematria established. Then comes Psychosocial. The beat provided by the custom percussion encourages plenty of headbanging, and the breakdowns are absolutely fantastic (seeing the entire band yell "The limits of the dead!" amidst a din of custom percussion). Jumping ahead to Butcher's Hook, through inspiration of Meshuggah Slipknot takes a shot at polyrhythm and despite the haters it works fantastically well. This is followed up by Gehenna, perhaps Slipknot's most experimental track to date. Giving a spooky vibe with some excellently utilized samples and custom percussion to accompany the slower pace, it is what you would fully expect out of Slipknot while also something new. Following this is what has to be the second heaviest track on the album, This Cold Black. Not as notable or impactful as Gematria, but still notable nonetheless. Then jumping forward to the final track of the album, the title track, "All Hope Is Gone". The lyrics here, just as Gematria, are politically-charged and accompany some pretty amazing instrumentals.
There is nothing about the album that I can find fault with. Sure maybe thats the fan-boy in me talking, but as I stated earlier, everything just works.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Artist of the Decade - Minus the Bear
For those of you who know me me, this probably isn't that much of a surprise. Well, actually, it probably is somewhat of a surprise seeing as only a year or two ago I would have given this title to none other than Slipknot. In light of this, I think it needs to be said that my taste in music has made a pretty large shift in the last couple of years. Prior, my library consisted of mostly mainstream artists, the sort that you'd here on the radio on a regular basis. Then came my introduction to iTunes and suggestions based upon what albums I was looking at and buying. That really began to open things up for me, introducing me to genres the likes of metalcore and melodic death metal. Then I joined Last.fm and that encouraged even further expansion of my tastes, introducing me the some incredibly amazing indie and experimental artists. And Last.fm is where I first ran into Minus the Bear. I was looking at the Similar Artists page for some other indie/experimental artist (I believe it may have been Circa Survive) and I saw them. Interested, I looked them up on Myspace and sampled a few of their tracks. I instantly fell in love with their music. If I can recall correctly, the song that really made an impression on me was the incredibly amazing Ice Monster from the incredibly fantastic album Planet of Ice. I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think I've ever fallen in love with a band so quickly (in fact, a good number of my favorites I initially disliked).
From my initial encounter, I decided to look them up at the library and order whatever albums (if any) were available. Thankfully, Planet of Ice was. Then soon after I got a hold of an iTunes gift card and on a whim decided to invest in their second album Menos el Oso (To make note, Minus the Bear in spanish). It has got to be some of the best ten dollars that I have ever spent on music, or anything else in fact. A couple weeks later I got another iTunes gift card and downloaded a copy of Highly Refined Pirates. I listened to these three albums endlessly, I simply could not get enough of them. To state it flat out, I racked up about a thousand plays of Minus the Bear in the space of a couple months. And in a couple more months that figure doubled. And now it stands at three thousand plus with anywhere from fifty to sixty plays on each album.
To be continued...
From my initial encounter, I decided to look them up at the library and order whatever albums (if any) were available. Thankfully, Planet of Ice was. Then soon after I got a hold of an iTunes gift card and on a whim decided to invest in their second album Menos el Oso (To make note, Minus the Bear in spanish). It has got to be some of the best ten dollars that I have ever spent on music, or anything else in fact. A couple weeks later I got another iTunes gift card and downloaded a copy of Highly Refined Pirates. I listened to these three albums endlessly, I simply could not get enough of them. To state it flat out, I racked up about a thousand plays of Minus the Bear in the space of a couple months. And in a couple more months that figure doubled. And now it stands at three thousand plus with anywhere from fifty to sixty plays on each album.
To be continued...
Music of the Decade
Inspired by my friend Jung and his countdown of the top one hundred korean songs of the decade, I thought I'd look through my vast collection of music and pick out my favorites from this last decade. I plan on naming an artist of the decade and album of the decade (as well as favorites).
I guess I'll outline when I hope to work on and get the posts posted:
Artist of the Decade - Today
Album of the Decade - Thursday, December 30th
General Favorites of the Decade - Friday, December 31st
I will then follow this with a run down of my top artists and albums of the year. Hope you enjoy it.
I guess I'll outline when I hope to work on and get the posts posted:
Artist of the Decade - Today
Album of the Decade - Thursday, December 30th
General Favorites of the Decade - Friday, December 31st
I will then follow this with a run down of my top artists and albums of the year. Hope you enjoy it.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Game Review - Goldeneye 007
Alright, so developer n-Space released two FPSs for the DS recently. The mighty and incredibly beast Black Ops and then a remake of the game that started it all, Goldeneye. I really built up hype and anticipation for Black Ops, and having an idea of what to expect and the massive number of improvements made over the previous installment of the series on the DS I was more than satisfied with it. In fact, I've now played almost twice as much online in the space of a few months than I did over an entire year with the previous game Mobilized. I think that says something. As for Goldeneye, I was aware of it's release and I had every intent on getting it, but my attention was focused solely on Blacks Ops. Christmas has come, and I now own a copy. Having played through the single player and played a couple matches online I'm having pretty mixed feelings. The question here as I go through and review the game is...has Black Ops tainted the experience for me?
With the exception of occasional hiccups when it comes to hit-detection, the single-player campaign of Goldeneye is absolutely fantastic. It's incredibly action packed and filled with variety. You can be sneaking through an enemy compound or launching an all-out assault, in fact one mission has you piloting a tank through the streets of Saint Petersburg. It doesn't get any more satisfying than rolling over cars, trading fire with other tanks and taking out helicopters. This mission brings to mind the tank mission found in last years Modern Warfare: Mobilized. They're both comparable, but in terms of satisfaction I've got to hand it to Goldeneye. The stealth missions other you plenty of variety in terms of how you want to dispatch your enemies. You can sneak up behind them and silently grab them from behind and suffocate them, you can utilize elements within the environments (like steam valves and fire extinguishers) to take them out, or you could throw caution to the wind and rush them (though thats far from suggested). Also worthy mentioning are the occasional interactive minigames sprinkled here and there through the game, ranging from swiping a key card and quickly entering a code to shooting the lock off of a door. While critics have stated that these are completely pointless (I'm looking at you IGN), I strongly disagree. These provide the player a means to further interact with the game, and thus makes the overall experience all that much more satisfying.
In terms of multiplayer, Goldeneye, despite a few glaring issues, does several things right. To get the problems out of the way, one real issue comes at how user-friendly the online is. In Black Ops, you get online once and you have access to friends and global matches, as well as your friend roster to see if your friends are online and if so what they are doing. Sadly, Goldeneye is incredibly archaic in comparison. Much like the previous Call of Duties you have to get online separately for global and friend matches. A little cumbersome if you ask me. Then there is the issue of exiting matches. It plops right back at the main menu. The frustration there doesn't need explanation. Finally, there is the distinct lack of any sort of stats tracking in the game. I shouldn't have to keep track of my multiplayer record myself, and with the lack of these records comes a feeling of "whats the point?" when playing online. Beyond those major issues, there are only small things that I've been nit-picking at. As stated earlier, much of Goldeneye's multiplayer is done right. Selection of your secondary, though more often that not your primary, gun and spawn points is spot on and essentially mirror that of Black Ops. Goldeneye does allow players to join in an already established game, but painfully and frustratingly only when it is in lobby. There are several modes and game modifiers to choose from, making for a lot of variety and potential for a lot of fun. That fun factor when playing global matches really depends upon who you play against and how many players you can get in a match. So far, I've only been able to play with more than one other player once, and have only found true enjoyment and excitement out of only a few matches. The quality of players is the true concern, though. It seems that about half the players out there are either giant noobs or douchebags (or even perhaps both), relying on the explosive power of the rocket launcher or of the lethal shotgun blast to get on the board. Thankfully there is a no explosives mod, but when that is employed they simply turn to the shotguns. To find true enjoyment out of the multiplayer, you may want to stick to playing with people you know.
Overall, while there may be occasional hiccups and issues, Goldeneye overall is a fantastic game. It took me a couple days to shake off those negative impressions due to senseless comparison to Black Ops (as evidenced in the intro), but I finally have and now I am truly enjoying the game for what it is. In fact, I have really touched Black Ops at all for the past couple days. Consider me pleasantly surprised.
Overall Score: 9/10
With the exception of occasional hiccups when it comes to hit-detection, the single-player campaign of Goldeneye is absolutely fantastic. It's incredibly action packed and filled with variety. You can be sneaking through an enemy compound or launching an all-out assault, in fact one mission has you piloting a tank through the streets of Saint Petersburg. It doesn't get any more satisfying than rolling over cars, trading fire with other tanks and taking out helicopters. This mission brings to mind the tank mission found in last years Modern Warfare: Mobilized. They're both comparable, but in terms of satisfaction I've got to hand it to Goldeneye. The stealth missions other you plenty of variety in terms of how you want to dispatch your enemies. You can sneak up behind them and silently grab them from behind and suffocate them, you can utilize elements within the environments (like steam valves and fire extinguishers) to take them out, or you could throw caution to the wind and rush them (though thats far from suggested). Also worthy mentioning are the occasional interactive minigames sprinkled here and there through the game, ranging from swiping a key card and quickly entering a code to shooting the lock off of a door. While critics have stated that these are completely pointless (I'm looking at you IGN), I strongly disagree. These provide the player a means to further interact with the game, and thus makes the overall experience all that much more satisfying.
In terms of multiplayer, Goldeneye, despite a few glaring issues, does several things right. To get the problems out of the way, one real issue comes at how user-friendly the online is. In Black Ops, you get online once and you have access to friends and global matches, as well as your friend roster to see if your friends are online and if so what they are doing. Sadly, Goldeneye is incredibly archaic in comparison. Much like the previous Call of Duties you have to get online separately for global and friend matches. A little cumbersome if you ask me. Then there is the issue of exiting matches. It plops right back at the main menu. The frustration there doesn't need explanation. Finally, there is the distinct lack of any sort of stats tracking in the game. I shouldn't have to keep track of my multiplayer record myself, and with the lack of these records comes a feeling of "whats the point?" when playing online. Beyond those major issues, there are only small things that I've been nit-picking at. As stated earlier, much of Goldeneye's multiplayer is done right. Selection of your secondary, though more often that not your primary, gun and spawn points is spot on and essentially mirror that of Black Ops. Goldeneye does allow players to join in an already established game, but painfully and frustratingly only when it is in lobby. There are several modes and game modifiers to choose from, making for a lot of variety and potential for a lot of fun. That fun factor when playing global matches really depends upon who you play against and how many players you can get in a match. So far, I've only been able to play with more than one other player once, and have only found true enjoyment and excitement out of only a few matches. The quality of players is the true concern, though. It seems that about half the players out there are either giant noobs or douchebags (or even perhaps both), relying on the explosive power of the rocket launcher or of the lethal shotgun blast to get on the board. Thankfully there is a no explosives mod, but when that is employed they simply turn to the shotguns. To find true enjoyment out of the multiplayer, you may want to stick to playing with people you know.
Overall, while there may be occasional hiccups and issues, Goldeneye overall is a fantastic game. It took me a couple days to shake off those negative impressions due to senseless comparison to Black Ops (as evidenced in the intro), but I finally have and now I am truly enjoying the game for what it is. In fact, I have really touched Black Ops at all for the past couple days. Consider me pleasantly surprised.
Overall Score: 9/10
Thursday, December 16, 2010
The Minivan Redefined?
With the latest generation of minivans, automakers are attempting to redefine the minivan. I can't quite attest to powertrain and all of the technical details, but speaking in terms of styling a monumental shift has certainly been made.
The main models to consider here: the Toyota Sienna, the Honda Odyssey, and the Nissan Quest. I'm not terribly sure what encouraged this change, but the Sienna was certainly the first to introduce this movement towards a sportier, more attractive design in minivans.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of each van's current and previous generation:
Toyota Sienna
Nissan Quest
Honda Odyssey
The main models to consider here: the Toyota Sienna, the Honda Odyssey, and the Nissan Quest. I'm not terribly sure what encouraged this change, but the Sienna was certainly the first to introduce this movement towards a sportier, more attractive design in minivans.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of each van's current and previous generation:
Toyota Sienna
Nissan Quest
Honda Odyssey
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The Absolute Musical Oddity That is The Mars Volta
When I think of The Mars Volta, these two words more often than not are the first to pop into my head: damn weird. If you have ever listened to them, you know what I mean. This post is motivated through that fact and also the fact that apparently guitarist Omar Rodriguez thought the sixth studio album that the band was working to be, and I quote, "too boring, and put on hold in favor of writing some new material. Now, seeing how completely strange The Mars Volta and the music that they make are, what might the bands definition of boring be?
Looking through the bands discography, as time goes on they are certainly gaining a more accessible sound. Frances the Mute and Amputechture are so strange, so completely out there I can't even bear to listen to them. I do have plays of both in my Last.fm library, yes, but that doesn't mean that listening to those album was in any way a pleasant experience. When I think about it, it seems to me that it is the absolute chaos, the absolute lack of any sort of structure that really turns me off. One example of this that is especially striking to me are some, if not most, of the saxophone parts found in Amputechture. When I listen to them I think "Its completely random! How the hell do they reproduce that on stage?". When it comes down to it, those albums, having very little musical value to me, strike me as just noise.
That is different with The Bedlam in Goliath. They certainly remain incredibly weird in that album, but I find that I can actually listen to it and enjoy it. This is certainly a major change over their previous albums. The trend somewhat continues in Octahedron, but seeing it's somewhat subdued nature, I never quite have been able to get into. Perhaps with this trend I can understand Rodriguez finding some the material they've been working on as boring.
Looking through the bands discography, as time goes on they are certainly gaining a more accessible sound. Frances the Mute and Amputechture are so strange, so completely out there I can't even bear to listen to them. I do have plays of both in my Last.fm library, yes, but that doesn't mean that listening to those album was in any way a pleasant experience. When I think about it, it seems to me that it is the absolute chaos, the absolute lack of any sort of structure that really turns me off. One example of this that is especially striking to me are some, if not most, of the saxophone parts found in Amputechture. When I listen to them I think "Its completely random! How the hell do they reproduce that on stage?". When it comes down to it, those albums, having very little musical value to me, strike me as just noise.
That is different with The Bedlam in Goliath. They certainly remain incredibly weird in that album, but I find that I can actually listen to it and enjoy it. This is certainly a major change over their previous albums. The trend somewhat continues in Octahedron, but seeing it's somewhat subdued nature, I never quite have been able to get into. Perhaps with this trend I can understand Rodriguez finding some the material they've been working on as boring.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Sounders Soon to Add Erik Friberg
Apparently the Sounders have come to a deal in signing Swedish midfielder Erik Friberg, the MLS only need to clear him first. Judging by this highlights video of his performance in the 2009 season with his club BK Hacken he will certainly be an excellent addition to the team:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6_e5pnYp9w
Seeing the void left by the loss of Sturgis and Nyassi this is fantastic news. The positions can certainly be filled by current Sounders (Brad Evans and Alvaro Fernandez respectively), but with the addition of Friberg there will definitely be competition for a starting position.
This news just adds to my incredible impatience for the 2011 season to arrive. The Sounders now have new defenders (Baudet, Earls from the Colorado Rapids), a new striker (O'brien White from Toronto FC) and now a new, capable mid-fielder. I cannot wait to see every one of these guys in rave green, and what they can contribute to the team.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6_e5pnYp9w
Seeing the void left by the loss of Sturgis and Nyassi this is fantastic news. The positions can certainly be filled by current Sounders (Brad Evans and Alvaro Fernandez respectively), but with the addition of Friberg there will definitely be competition for a starting position.
This news just adds to my incredible impatience for the 2011 season to arrive. The Sounders now have new defenders (Baudet, Earls from the Colorado Rapids), a new striker (O'brien White from Toronto FC) and now a new, capable mid-fielder. I cannot wait to see every one of these guys in rave green, and what they can contribute to the team.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
