Heritage

I must apologize about not doing anything blog-related over the weekend - I've been kept busy from both family and university. Regardless, I picked up Opeth's Heritage (HMV finally got around to stocking it), and have given it a listen. It's... interesting.

It's not a particularly good start, to be honest. I've read a lot about how Opeth have moved toward a more prog-oriented sound, abandoning traditional death metal influences in the process, and it's intriguing to see how it all plays out. Interestingly, despite the album being, in many ways, a throwback to the 70's prog bands which have influenced the band (hence, presumably, the title of the album), the songs are generally shorter than on previous releases. Trying to pack so much content into smaller time frames has not necessarily improved each song's quality - the first two 'proper' tracks, after the piano opener, have a somewhat disquieting shift in the middle, which sounds less like the songs are flowing, changing, living creatures and more two shorter creatures stapled onto one another.

The album grows on you, however. Definitely. The aforementioned tracks are the exception rather than the rule - the band definitely prove that they can craft wondrous songs without dipping into the extreme metal pool, with tracks like 'Nepenthe,' 'Häxprocess,' and the eight minute epics 'Famine' and 'Folklore' being joys in particular. Opeth fans looking for more of their older, heavier stuff should definitely approach with caution, but, the end result of this evolution is a solid album.

The Hunt Is On

This post is going to be short, and there's a good reason for that.

That reason is The Hunter. Mastodon's newest is great, with a catchier edge to the proggier Mastodon. It's a showcase of so many types of songs, a rollercoaster ride of emotions, and yet it stays coherent. This is a genuinely fascinating album.

Seriously, listen to this album. The band have removed it from Youtube since the album's release (aaaaw), but trust me on this - it's amazing.

In fact, I'm going to go listen to it again. Fuck yeah!

Stratiovarius - Elysium

So, I was thinking of kicking this blog off with a review of an album I bought recently, Stratovarius' "Elysium." It was a spur of the moment purchase - I had never listened to the band before, though I had heard of them, so I had no idea what they sounded like, except comparisons to bands like Kamelot and Blind Guardian.

I have to say, I was quite pleased by my impulse buy. I generally am, for some reason - whenever I buy an album for whatever reason other than having heard a lot of their songs before it usually turns out to be a good decision. Thrice's "The Alchemy Index", Paradise Lost's "Faith Devides Us, Death Unites Us" Periphery's self-titles debut, and a few others were all bought for no real reason beyond "Hmm, that album cover looks cool," or "Hey, there's a band I read about before!", and I found them to be surprisingly good. If anything, the successes of random purchases has led to me being more open minded in regards to music - I'm more likely to listen to a band I have no prior knowledge of now than a few years ago.

Anyway, I bought the Limited Edition version album from HMV because I had a spare £20, and because the cover was shiny. Very shiny. For clarification purposes, here's the standard album cover:

To let you understand just how shiny the Limited Edition is, I didn't know that was the cover image. That's not because the art isn't on my version, it's because it's obscured by shininess! It's difficult to read the song names on the back in anything other than pitch black! It took me about ten minutes for my eyes to adjust and let me see what album I had just purchased! Hell, there were a few minutes when I was worried that I had just bought an exceptionally bright box.

Ignoring the eye-rending colour-choice, then, and onto the actual album. I didn't buy the Limited Edition, incidentally, because I always do that - it was literally all HMV had. I always thought that special versions of albums were something fans of the band would pay an extra fiver for, for meager bonuses, or for gloating purposes - alternatives to the standard version. But no, apparently HMV opted for the more costly one, probably for the potential for profit. Not that I'm that surprised, they tend to have little in the way of anything decent in stock.

Anyway, in terms of extra features, there's quite a decent selection. There's these little cards, one for each band member, on which there are messages from the band which pretty much boil down to "Thanks for buying our music, come see us live!". Somewhat sweet, but not worth forking out extra money over. The real meat, though, is in the form of a second CD, which consists of demo versions of all the songs on the album. While you could look at it as being pointless (after all, you've already got the finished version), I personally like it, some of them are quite decent despite being unpolished.

As for the music itself? Yeah, it's good. For the most part it's standard, catchy power metal played by skilled musicians and a singer who is undeniably talented, but a bit of an acquired taste. I'm not saying he's bad, it's just that it takes a few listens to get used to his voice. There are no poor songs, and the ones that really stand out are those with progressive touches - such as "Infernal Maze" and the colossal, 18-minute long title track - and the softer, slower paced songs - "Fairness Justified" and "Move the Mountains". All in all, it turned out to be a great purchase - an album with songs more brilliant than the box they come in.

Welcome to my Reality

It took me forever to finally get off my ass and start this blog. It took me longer to do that than to think of a name for it, which took me about two days of walking around, staring at things with a vaguely puzzled look on my face, as the creative part of my soul shot itself in the head. Ah well, if there's one thing I lack, it's motivation to do anything that requires effort, and, apparently, a blog requires effort. So, anyway welcome my in(s)ane ranting! I hope my terrible attempts at humour don't scare you away.

This blog will essentially be my views on things. Let's get one thing straight from the start - I'm a nerd. I love gaming, and by gaming, I don't mean Call of Duty, I mean things like RPGs (both pen and paper, and videogames), MMOs and strategy games. I love literature, with particular soft spots for fantasy and horror. I enjoy listening to power metal and prog. I have just alienated the vast majority of any potential readers with four simple sentences (okay, half were simple, half were complex, but shut up). I'm no social pariah, but I'm hardly Mr. Popular. So if you found this looking for a blog on football, firstly, congratulations! You managed to break Google. Also, this blog is not for you.

I also have a tendency to ramble, as if you hadn't noticed by now. Don't worry, it's not going to get any better.

This blog doesn't exist to spread any message. I don't plan on becoming an internet celebrity (have you seen the? Most of them terrify me!), and I didn't start this for the sole purpose of making money, as I have seen others do. It's an outlet, for my feelings or thoughts on certain issues, be it a review of something (an album, a game, an unappreciated band, a... I don't know, a loofah?), or my opinions on a current event. I could post this shit on a forum, I could rant to my friends, but a blog gives me more freedom.

Another thing. I am terrible at getting ideas for stuff like this (probably due to the aforementioned lack of motivation) so, if you have anything you want covered, either add it as a comment, or send it to me via email. I eagerly await the two sincere suggestions in a flood of ads for penis enlargement and sex adds.

So, yeah. That probably came out worse than expected, and it most likely sounds like some 14-year-olds inane prattle on LiveJournal, but it'll have to do. I plan on updating the blog at least once every two days, a schedule which will probably slip due to the my terrible (all together now!) mo-ti-vay-she-un.