Solution .45: For Aeon's Past

Genre(s): Melodic/Progressive/Power Metal

Label: AFM Records

I think I could benefit from getting a new Laptop messenger bag from CSN Stores.

Solution .45, For Aeon's Past, my album of 2010. I can not stop blasting this! Every day I have to listen to this album because it's such a stinking ear worm! Gravitational Lensing, The Close Beyond, Lethean Tears.....GAH! I can't stop listening to this album! Another one I can't stop listening to is Saint's Hellblade, but that's another review for another time. When I first heard this album, I was hooked from the word go. 

                                                

 The following statement will be brought to you in part by.......

(This has been a wild one from the word "go"!) 

Ahh memories.....Anyway, back to work!

Solution .45 is one of my top picks of last year in terms of "Top Five", which is a list I will give to you.......now....

Solution .45: For Aeon's Past

Saint: Hellblade

Golden Resurrection: Glory To My King

Fireflight: For Those Who Wait

and last, but most certainly not least, Accept: Blood of Nations.

For Aeon's Past flows really well, which is something I LOVE hearing in Melodeath. The songs are all made really well, and theirs even a break in the album from all the hard awesomeness with a slower song called Lethean Tears. Overall, the album itself is amazing, and the artwork is an eye-catcher.

But alas, with every good album comes the bad. And the problem that I have with this one iss the same as all the other Melodeath that I listen to: after a while, it gets boring. And that's one reason why I'm trying to cut back on it. I don't want it to become TOO boring so that I'll never listen to it again. So this album gets a 9.5 out out of me. It's sound is amazing, the flow is good, the lyrics are different, but it gets boring after a while.

As always, I'm your Host, Wattako. Stay Shockey.

Disturbed: Asylum

Genre: Hard Rock/Heavy Metal
Label: Reprise



When I first heard that this album was coming out, I was stoked. I couldn't wait for it to be released. I was still listening to their last album, Indestructible, and wanting more. When I first heard Disturbed, I heard their cover of Land of Confusion by Genesis, and the songs Ten Thousand Fist, Down With The Sickness, Prayer, Voices and so on. The first album I listened to all the way through by these guys was Ten Thousand Fist, the title track being my favorite. Jump forward to me finding The Sickness and listening to that, as well as Believe. When Indestructible was released I listened to it as soon as I could. And then when I heard about Asylum and how it was their darkest album yet, I wanted to see if that held true. And it did, for the most part. I wanted the album badly, but after listening to it fully thanks to youtubers, I wasn't has hyped about getting it as I once was. I only like a few songs of the album: Asylum, The Animal, Another Way to Die, Never Again and Warrior. The rest of the album I didn't care for.

Another thing that made me disapointed was the music videos for Asylum and The Animal.  I felt like they didn't stick to the story that was being told. For example: the song Asylum, from what I can tell, is about how a man is driven to the point of insanity because of loneliness.

The Animal: short and sweet, werewolf. Nuff said.


Over all, the album gets a 7.5, my lowest score yet. Reason be is because the rest of the album aside from the songs I listed above, I thought where just bad. They could have done better with the videos and songs in my opinion. But hey, beggar's can't be choosers.

As always, I'm your host, Wattako.

Sonata Arctica: The Days of Greys

Genre: Power/Progressive Metal
Label(s): Spinefarm, Nuclear Blast


Sonata Arctica, originally called Tricky Means and starting out as a hard rock group rather then the power metal they are known for nowadays, is one of  my personal favorites of the genre. I like a lot of power metal, ask any of my fellow metalheads and they'll tell you. I recently picked this album up while I was looking for their debut, Ecliptica. I saw other albums by the group, ones such as Unia, Silence, and Reckoning Night. I didn't have an interest in the other albums, although Unia is one of my favorites by the band, so I picked up The Days of Greys after using the sampler at the store (I love FYE). And I have to say, listening to it for the first time without any knowledge of the album, I was pleasantly surprised by what I was hearing.

As I said before, I like power metal. And I've listen to these guys for a while, the first song I heard from them was Paid In Full while I was on youtube one day and stumbled onto the music video, and thus began my interest and personal investigation into the group. It wasn't until recently that I found out that this album is their current most recent album to be released. I haven't heard anything so far about a new album. According to the website, www.sonataarctica.info, they are still on a U.S. and Canada tour for The Days of Greys.

I look forward to a new album by these guys, and hopefully to see them live someday. I still want to get my hands on Ecliptica, though....

Overall, I give these album an 8. I like the album, but the second track on the album, Deathaura, to me is too long and drawn out. Not really sticking to a select path. But then again, that's just me being pessimistic.


As always, I'm your host, Wattako. Stay Shockey.

The Showdown: Blood In The Gears

Alright, time for one of my favorite bands that aren't Christian! Yes, that's right, The Showdown is NOT a Christian group, much to everyone's belief. The guitarist of the group, Josh Childers, has said in interviews that they are not a Christian group. But we're not here to talk about weather or not they're Christian, we're here to talk about the music! I know that I say that I don't do reviews of non Christian bands, but in this case, I'm willing to make an exception. I bought this album about a week or so ago, and I've got to say, I like it a lot. Temptation is still one of my favorite albums by them, but in my humble opinion, Blood In The Gears is their best thus far. The entire album just flows very well, and if your like me and have listen to they're past three albums, Chorus of Obliteration, Temptation Come My Way and Back Breaker, you can here the same style in this song, but its become more matured.

I'd have to say that my favorite track on the album is a tie between three different songs:

The Man Named Hell
Diggin' My Own Grave
And the bonus track, which has no title.


Now being a Christian Metalhead Biker, this album is going to be a favorite of mine. The Man Named Hell is my personal favorite out of the three I like, because it has a bike revving for an intro, that actually works as the basic drum line for the remainder of the song.


Diggin' My Own Grave is another one of my favorites because I like the sound and the feel. I didn't know that Showdown had a southern style flair to the music until I heard this song, seeing that I haven't listened to Temptation in quite some time. And I've gotta say, it sounds pretty awesome.


The bonus track on the album, which came up in my Zune software as "Untitled" is another favorite of mine, simply because of the intense feel of it. I've been a Showdown fan ever since Chorus, the first song(s) I ever heard by them being their cover of Carry On My Wayward Son, originally by Kansas, and Dagon Undone.


My personal view on this album is that it's awesome. I'm always in the mood for some good thrash, and The Showdown delivers with Blood In The Gears as a whole, and I personally cannot wait to see what they are going to do next.

As always, I'm your host, Wattako.

Demon Hunter: The World is A Thorn

Genre: Metalcore



What can be said about DH? Well, for the genre, they are one of my favs. I don't like much metalcore, but DH is one that always comes to mind when I think of it, right before Five Finger Death Punch. I first heard these guys a few years ago. Didn't know much about them at the time because I was still in a Sophomore in high school. Storm The Gates was my favorite album and still is. I like the brutality of Storm The Gates, and the combo with the title track and Lead Us Home is excellent. What I like about The World Is A Thorn is the sound.

But why the sound? Simply because, to me, it has more of a Thrashy feel to it which is an upgrade for DH. I haven't really spent the time to sit and listen to the album in its entirety, but from what I've heard its a god sound for DH with Just Breath being my fav. And no, its not just because Christian Älvestam is guest vocalizing on it, its the all around sound of the song, the structure and the complexity it brings. If you know me, you that Älvestam is my favorite vocalist. But his addition doesn't make it top for me, as awesome as he is. I've listen to all of DH's album, and I have to say that TWSAT is by far their most complex piece of work. Another one of my favorites on the album would have to be Collapsing, featuring Björn "Speed" Strid. I've taken a listen to Björn's band Soilwork, originally being called Inferior Breed, but they changed the name to Soilwork meaning "working from the ground up" according to Wikipedia. I have mixed feelings about them. Not my favorite group, but maybe I need to look into them more.

And as far as their debut goes, not many bands of this genre have a good debut like DH does. One of my favorite songs of DH is Though The Black, simply because of how raw it sounds. Most metalcore has a very raw feel to it, and most of the time in my opinion, it sucks because the band either trying too hard or not enough. A lot of people will debate between which band is better between DH and another one of my favs, Becoming The Archetype. And I have to say, the arguments that ensue from it are arbitrary and ridicules. So what if you like BTA over DH? Not one is better than the other, for their respective genre's they are both awesome.

That's my input on the whole "DH VS. BTA" crap. Both are amazing bands and they both bring their own feel to the metal community. Back to the task at hand, DH has been one of my favorite bands for a few years now, and really they are underestimated. Thorns is one of their best songs. What I like about DH is Ryan Clark, the lead vocals. The man can sing when he wants to, but at the same time can deliver powerful metalcore screams. Carry Me Down is a BEAUTIFUL song, as well as a few other songs of the style. I really apprichiate DH Because they aren't all about power and raw energy, like most bands of the genre. They have some good songs that I would consider to be ballads, just from the feel I get from them.

All in all, DH is a good Christian Metalcore band. Underestimated? Without a doubt. Good? Hands down one of the best of the genre.

As always, I'm your host Wattako. Stay Shockey and God bless.

New Band (less then three years formed) Review!

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you, The Few Against Many. They are once again a Melodic Death Metal group, led by quite possibly my favorite vocalist in the Death Metal industry, Christian Älvestam.

Now as I listen to this album, I find the distinctive traits of Christian: intense and sometime brutal vocals, good guitar work, screams etc etc etc, that one would notice in some of his current bands (i.e. Solution .45, Miseration) as well as in his past bands when he was still with them. Scar Symmetry is the only good band (in terms of past bands) that I've listened to with Christian being lead vocals. The man is extremely talented. Not only does he deliver intense growls and death vocals, but he's also an accomplished clean vocalist as well.

When you say the name Christian Älvestam in the metal community, most people immediately think old SS(look up their album Holographic Universe, it is my favorite SS album with Christian, Pitch Black Progress being second). Now that he's with bands like Miseration and TFAM, not to mention the super-group Solution .45 with another one of my favorite vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jani Stefanović who is mostly known for his work with my favorite Symphonic Power Metal group DivineFire.

The album for TFAM is titled Sot, and from what I can tell its a very good album. It's a little over a half hour long, the songs averaging at about four minutes in length, the longest of them being close to seven minutes.

As far as which song is my favorite, it's hard to tell. The entire album is good in my opinion. I can't find one song that I don't like.

And now comes the part where I rate the band:

Vocals: 8.5.
The reason I give Christian only an 8.5 is because honestly I've heard better. I like him growling, but I love when at least a song or two has some cleans. This album, unfortunately has none which is a bummer for me simply because of how good Christian can hit the notes he hits. He's no Rob Rock, but then again, who is?

Musical Structure: 9
I give this album a 9 because no album is perfect, just like no band in perfect. No matter how hard you try you will never make a "perfect" album. A prime example of that is Impellitteri's album Wicked Maiden. It took the band almost five years to complete the album, mostly due to the fact that Chris kept feeling as if he could do better. And I like it when a band or artist pushes themselves to do better. Because it tells me that they're serious about it. But I'm sure that as happy as Chris is with the album, I'm pretty sure there are some things he wishes he did, some things he wishes he did better and some things he didn't want to do at all.

Lyrical Structure: 8

An 8. Why you would ask? Because, while they stuck to the theme, the words where hard to understand even for Christian. Most of the time, I can decipher what he's saying, but for whatever reason it may be, be it production, mixing of the tracks, whatever, it was harder for me to understand.

Style: 8
Again? 8? Really? I know, a lot of 8's this time around. For the style they do, I was kind of disappointed in TFAM. I've heard better, but I've also heard worse(new SS). For whatever reason, I just wasn't as impressed with this band in terms of style. Maybe its because a good chunk of the music I listen to is Melodeath, maybe I'm starting to get bored of Melodeath, who knows? Anyway, they get an 8 for the debut album. I can't wait to see what these guys do.


Total rating: 9.5

Not bad for a band only three years young. Like I said, I've heard a lot worse...But, on the other hand, I've also heard much better.

As always, I'm your host, Wattako. Stay Shockey.

Things that piss me off....

#1: Politics

If you know me well, you know that I HATE politics...I hate talking about them, I hate HEARING about them. If you are one of those people who where on the debate team in high school, please don't talk to me about politics...ANYTHING put politics...This is how I look at politics....

"Politics is made up of two words: poli, which is the Latin word for many, and ticks, which are blood sucking leeches..." Peanut in Jeff Dunham's "Arguing With Myself".



#2: Movies

Why do I say movies? To put it simply, because most of today's movies are either pointless or so obscene that I can't put up with it...Their are exceptions, but they are few and far between...
And some movies that look good in the previews are most of the time either not what I was expecting at all and sucked, or the content pisses me off so much that I have to leave.


#3: Wanna-be-gangsters

Now these guys....Oh.....They listen to rap and all of a sudden they think they're some kind of badass that can whatever the heck they feel like doing because they listen to other people do it! Whoever says music isn't influential should be smacked in the back of the head like DiNozzo on NCIS...Don't tell me music isn't influential, because I see it everyday. Kids nowadays are out smoking pot, drinking and going to parties with no parental supervision to be seen, and its all because of MUSIC and PER-PRESSURE. For all you parents out their, I would like to challenge you: check into your kids if they listen to Rap or Hip-Hop. Check their rooms when they are away, because their is a good change that they are hiding some kind of drug paraphernalia from you.


#4:Video Games of today's time

Now this one is easy to say because, being a gamer nerd, I've play a lot of good games and A LOT of BAD games. I grew up playing games like Super Mario and Legend of Zelda, back when games where GOOD. Now a lot of games that kids are playing today and, here's the kicker, their parents DON'T CARE are games that are either very violent, splattered with sexual themes, foul language and the like...Now what really pisses me off about this is something I've already mentioned, and that's the fact that some parents just don't care.

*deep breath*
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
YOU FREAKING IDIOTS!!!!!!!!


HOW!?!?!?!? How can you sit there and watch your kids play a game that's rated "M" for MATURE!!!!!! and not do anything about it!? It's people like them who really get under my skin and just flat piss me off...Shame on you if you are one of those parents that allow that to happen! And don't try to tell me "that it's not going to effect them"....You know what I have to say to that?


Excuse my language but that's a load of bullshit! I would NEVER....NEVER Let my kids play those games until they where old enough.....



#5: High school students

Being out of high school for only a year, I know how hard H.S. can be. What really ticks me off though are some of the students in high school, mainly the younger ones. Now I went to a secondary school when I was in high school. For those of you that don't know a secondary school is grades 7-12. And I gotta tell ya, some of them younger kids thought they were all that and a bag of chips. Not so much the older ones aside from a few exceptions. "Stupid is as stupid does" I say to people who act like jerks their whole lives. But man! Some of the kids I had to deal with for my Library class were absolute A-holes!


#6: People on the road

Some drivers I have to wonder how they passes their drivers test and why their behind the wheel in the first place. Rude and idiotic come to mind for words to describe them. If your that pissed at me because I turned into your lane while I was signally properly and you are too distracted with your cell phone or radio to see me and you get mad, get off the road...



That's all I can really think about for right now. If I think of anything else, expect another post.



As always, I'm your host Wattako.