May 2013 – Page 4 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Work does have it’s uses after all!

I’ve started work again, but only part time. Still, it’s already biting in to my writing time. I was in the middle of writing a story for my anthology last night, right in the narrative flow, when I realised it was gone eleven and I had to be up for work at six. Most irritating.

At work I tried to find some time to work on another short story for the collection. Luckily, the technical department tend to be very much ‘go with the flow’ and since there wasn’t much QA-ing for me to do I did a bit of admin for the manager instead. Mindless and easy, my mind wondered off to other worlds. Break time came and I started to write. Twenty five minutes concentrated writing and then back to the day job. Then later another twenty minutes scribbling away. It might not be any good but when I’ve finished it and typed it up I’ll play around with it and improve it.

I find work is a good place to let my creative side have free rein on the subconscious level, so that when I do write it’s all there waiting for the short spurts of writing I can manage.

Maybe, if you’re having a bit of writer block, that might be a way to break it. Set aside ten, fifteen minutes to just write anything. Go away for a few hours and then have another short session. The intervening time will allow your brain to mull over ideas started in the first session.

Work, for most of us, is a dull grind done so that we can afford to do the things we want to, so using the time effectively, to allow writing during the work day, is a must.

Going to nap now,

Bye,

Rose

Shamelessly plugging my ridiculously talented relatives

Hey, everyone else is getting free advertising so I thought I’d do my family a minor favour and let people know about them.

My younger sister Helen has a small business proofreading, and she’s also a bit of an historian.

She has a blog and Twitter, plus a Facebook page for her business.

Her blog is helencawkwell1.wordpress.com, her Twitter is @helen_cawkwell and her business Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/StudentProofOnline

She’s really good at the proof reading, she usually proof reads my longer articles for me, although not my blog posts because I write them at odd times. Go and have a look at her pages, please.

My brother-in-law Richard is a spectacularly good guitarist in need of a band. Here are some tracks he’s recorded:

If anyone near by wants to get in touch, or further away if you’re aren’t insanely far away, he has his contact details in various music shops in Grimsby and Scunthorpe, and on the SoundCloud page. Seriously, go have a listen.

My cousin, another Richard, is a tattooist and photographer. He works under the name ‘Loveless Tattooer’ at Bespoke Body Art in Grimsby. The best way to see examples of his work is to look on his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/lovelesstattooer

If I ever get a tattoo I think I’d get Richard to do it, mainly because I wouldn’t trust someone not family near me with needle and ink. And I like his work.

I have other cousins; Dominic is a photographer and student film maker – he’s very good. I’m using one of Dominic’s pictures as a prompt for a series of short stories. Christopher likes to play with computers and Louis is a historian. I’m scared he’ll start a war with France one day. They’ll have to add their own links in the comments if they want people to see their work because I don’t know where they have them.

And that is my shameless plugging of my family’s talents over (To my family – you’d better appreciate it, you horrible lot :D)

Bye-bye

Rose

Happy Star Wars Day – May the Fourth be with you!

Adventures and Musings of an Arch Druidess

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Review: Sacred Mother Tongue ‘Out Of The Darkness’

At last! I’ve been album since I saw them live in mid-March. It does not disappoint.

Andy James’ guitar playing is amazing and Darrin South’s lyrics and vocals are so damn good. Josh Gurner (Bass) and Lee Newell (Drums) tie it all together nicely. And together it’s perfect: a heavy sound with well written, honest lyrics, and excellent musicianship. There really isn’t a track on this album that I don’t like and I can’t wait to see them play at Download Festival next month. They may just be my new favourite band.

Review: Bring Me The Horizon ‘Sempiternal’

I didn’t like BMTH’s earlier stuff, because as I’ve said before I prefer singers who actually sing rather than shout, and Ollie Sykes shouts far more than he sings. That’s unfortunate really because as ‘Deathbeds’, the final track on the ‘Deluxe’ version of Sempiternal, shows, Ollie Sykes can sing quite well. That isn’t the onbly track on the album that shows BMTH’s growth as a band, and as people. The raw pain in the lyrics of ‘Can You Feel My Heart’ contrasts with the anger of ‘The House of Wolves’. Just when you think you know what to expect they change the emotional tone of the songs, although the whole is tied together musically.

I had to listen to the album twice to really get in to it, but once I did I was willing to admit that while they will never be my favourite band this group of lads from Sheffield are okay. I can see why they are considered one of the best young British metal bands around.

Metal Hammer presents HIM Tears on Tape Limited Edition Collector’s Pack: Was it worth it?

YES!!!!!

You know I said I’d stop fangirling? Well, I lied. I’m back with another post.

I pre-ordered the fan pack as soon as it was available (if I’d waited I wouldn’t have had the money to pay for it). It arrived the on Monday, the official release date and came packaged in a sturdy cardboard container.

It contains

· a comprehensive magazine edited by Ville Valo and covering everything to do with the new album,

· two double-sided posters (although one of them might be for pre-orders only – it has the names of everyone who ordered before the 2^nd of April printed on it), one A1 sized and the other full door length

a drawstring bag (again pre-orders only?),

· for 1000 lucky people, signed cards (I didn’t get one of those *sigh*),

· a code to download five bonus tracks from DXX records.’

At £14.99 I’d say that was a bargain. Even if you take out the stuff that’s for pre-orders only that still leaves a thick magazine, an album, several bonus songs to download, and a very large double-sided poster. At a quick estimate, let’s say the album costs £10 on its own, the poster, 3 or 4 quid, the magazine is at least £4, plus the downloadable tracks? £2 or £3? So about £20 in total? If you could get any of the extras on their own, which I don’t think you can, that’s good value for money. Now the only decision is, do I hang the posters up, or keep them safe in the packaging?

So, purely from a monetary viewpoint, the fan-pack/collector’s pack is worth it. From a fan’s point of view, the insights into the band, the album and everything that goes with it, the magazine is a treasure house of information. So yes, definitely worth the money if you like HIM.

Bye,

Rose

Review: HIM ‘Tears on Tape’

Firstly let me declare my biases.

I’m very fond of HIM, they’re probably the only band I fan-girl over

There’s a good chance I’d love this album anyway because it’s the first album of new music they’ve released since I first heard their music

Now that’s out of the way I’ll get on with the actual review. Bearing in mind what I’ve just said, and my major fan-girling on Twitter on the morning I received my copy of ‘Tears on Tape’ (29/04/2013), it actually took me a while to get in to the album. It was only on my third listen that it started to grow on me; I really liked ‘Love without tears’ the first time through, and then ‘Into the night’ replaced it as my favourite song on the album. The opening riff on ‘Hearts at war’ is very reminiscent of ‘Love Metal’ era HIM.

Ville Valo’s voice has definitely changed in the last few years; it’s not as strong as it once was although he still manages to carry the songs well, and reprises of old hits ‘Buried alive by love’ and ‘Kiss of dawn’ – live from Finnvox, show that he can still sing their older material. Linde’s riffs are great, Mige’s bass sits quietly in the background holding things together, Burton is still a virtuoso on the keys and Gas is still hitting those drums way too hard. I really like the intro ‘Unleash the red’; it sets the tone for the whole album right from the start. More bands should have instrumental intro’s on their albums.

The more I listen to this album the more I love it. It definitely requires listening to several times to really get in to it and hear all the different aspects and, since the lyrics aren’t in the album, to understand precisely what is being sung, but it repays the time in the quality of the work and the pleasure I get from hearing these gents again. HIM have managed to produce another album of melodic, dark and heavy tracks that reference in their sound all their influences. I like the ‘dirty’ effect they’ve managed to get, like you would hear on a real cassette tape as it warps and changes with being played.

The album artwork, by Daniel P Carter, is rather gorgeously gothic; the new evolution in the

heartagram as a sigil, the skulls, bleeding hearts and beautiful geometric work is so very representative of HIM, yet so different from their previous album sleeve artwork. I love the cover; it reminds me of the sea under storm clouds. It also reminds me of the afternoon just after the cover art was first released that I spent with my nephew trying to decipher the lyrics written in the world snake. We had fun, and managed to translate the writing (my nephew was very proud of himself). I’m a sentimental git, the music appeals to me, what can I say?

The thing that made me laugh most was the way the album credits were concluded with ‘Ta & Ta Ta’ – thank you and goodbye in Midland’s English (someone’s been hanging around in England for too long methinks).

Right, I’m going to stop verbally fan-girling now and try to sum up.

This album is HIM; it references so many of their influences and yet is different from all of them, it’s a bit heavier than some of their earlier stuff, being closer to Love Metal than Screamworks, and it needs a few listens to really get in to, but it grew on me. A great addition and evolution to the band’s body of work.

Yours, in sonic insanity,

Rose

Aviator Shades

Twitter: @AviatorShades1

Facebook: aviatorshadesband

This band were surprisingly easy to find out about; their Facebook page has a comprehensive history of the band and lists all their social media URL’s, as well as influences, genre, and most usefully, who is actually in the band.

Aviator Shades are:

Dave Gorman Singer/Bassist

Jesse Waldron Drums

George Baker Guitar

Shaun Michael Thackeray Guitar

They are based in Vancouver, although at least one of them isn’t originally from Canada, and they list their influences as ‘Thin Lizzy, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Queen, Iron Maiden, Rush, AC/DC, Whitesnake and ZZ Top’ and their genre as ‘Classic rock, blues and a dash of metal’. I could hear the first two in their tracks but not the ‘metal’ elements. As to social media they have Facebook, Twitter, bandcamp, myspace, reverbnation, youtube and soundcloud accounts, so I suppose you can take your pick of how you consume their music. I personally prefer Sound Cloud because they have a mobile site and my phone likes it better than the reverbnation site or youtube. They plan to have an EP out this year.

Opinion?

I quite liked them; they definitely fit in to their genre declaration of ‘classic rock’. Their songs have catchy hooks and are quite anthemic; the singer’s voice is good. I was trying to work out who he reminded me of. The closest I could get was Meat Loaf, and even that’s not quite right. There’s also something very bluesy about them, almost shading in to folk-music-esque at times, especially on ‘Papa taught me how to sing (the blues)’.

A Second Reflection

Twitter: @ASRband_UK

Facebook: A Second Reflection

A Second Reflection is currently a solo project by Tim Merrick. Currently he has a few demos available on soundcloud – the links are on the ‘A Second Reflection’ Facebook page. He apparently hopes to have more songs written and recorded ‘soon’

I’ve listened to some of the tracks, they are ‘nowhere near complete’ according to their composer. I found them a little repetitive, although competent, and it will definitely be interesting to see what he does with them.

Ah, the long eighteenth century, how I have missed you.

I was strolling through Twitter a few minutes ago when I came across a post that an historian of the eighteenth century had retweeted. It came from another wordpress blog, called georgianbawdyhouse.wordpress.com; little known fact about me: I find the 18th century fascinating.

Society was poised on the edge of revolution. Not just the violent kind either. It was a time of scientific discovery and social change, the beginnings of industrialisation and empire building. The working class and industrial/urban middle classes were beginning to assert themselves. Some excellent books were also written as well, like ‘Pride and Prejudice’. And if you’ve had a read of any of my old posts you’ll know that’s one of my favourite books.

So occasionally I might reblog posts from georgianbawdyhouse.wordpress.com.
It’s a really interesting blog, by the way.

Bye,

Rose