Everything Is Better With Dragons
Book blogger, Autistic, Probably a Dragon, Owned by Hell Hounds
Actually, the single, ‘I am the Fire’ was released a few weeks ago but I’ve only just had a chance to hear it (I have to wait for Spotify).
I’ve listened to it at least twice. I like. But then there isn’t much of Halestorm’s music that I don’t enjoy.
Because another band has followed me. Once I start something I have to carry on. Plus I like helping people. So despite my reservations, I’m going to write about the latest band to follow my Twitter account.
Because trying to do anything too complicated is quite a chore even with my snazzy new phone, what should have been one post is now two. Also l, I’ve been awake since 1 a.m. (pre-festival excitement/terror induced insomnia) so I’m struggling with basic things like getting the copy and paste to work.
So, here is the official video for the single ‘God is Dead?’ from the new album. It’s, er, interesting, some unexpected elements but basically obvious.
This track was recommended to me by Spotify because I’ve got this band in my playlists. I reviewed their EP ‘Incandescent’a few weeks ago *
http://open.spotify.com/track/3JvHNU1vKQZHWzVrZ0hzUS
Compared to their earlier releases ‘Damn You’ is definitely an improvement in terms of musicianship. The guitars show new vigour and the vocal style has improved. The song is catchy an upbeat.
While these improvements in style are great, the band seem to have lost lyrical depth, like that displayed in ‘Brighter than the Sun’s and ‘What they can’t steal from you’.
3/5
[* ‘One band I like, one band I think are a bit bad mannered and two bands I’m not fussed by’ 16th May 2013]
Last year Black Veil Brides released their third album, ‘Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones’ and on11th June they are releasing their Ultimate Edition of the album containing three unreleased tracks plus a DVD of the film ‘The Legion of the Black’ . In addition they are releasing their Ultimate Black Box Edition that has the same contents as the Ultimate Edition including the CD with alternative artwork plus three the new songs, Legion of the Black DVD, an expanded booklet, and a solid black BVB rosary.
A lyric video for one of the songs, ‘Revelation’ , has been released on youtube. The video shows a young man going in to a Hollywood record shop and purchasing ‘Wretched and Divine’ before taking it home and playing it on a record player.
The song fits with the story told on the album very well, but I can see why they left it off the main release, it is fairly superfluous and adds nothing to the main storyline (yes, I have listened to the album, in fact I’m listening to it again now. I quite like it) and the lyrics are a little repetitive, but is still a decent song. The product placement in the video distracted me slightly, but only because I was wondering whether it was accidental or deliberate; I think it must have been deliberate, on consideration.
Here’s the video for you to decide for yourselves what you think.
Yes, it’s another round up of the bands that follow my Twitter account. Aren’t you lucky devils?
So the first band on my list are Demise, a band from the West Midlands that formed in 2008. They describe themselves as a ‘heavy band’ and say they sound like Pantera, Down, Metallica, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Black Label Society.
Band Members:
They have several tracks available a:
I listened to ‘The Contender’.
Opinion
I’m not incredibly impressed, but as I’ve said multiple times I prefer clean vocals to shouting and screaming. I know other people like that sort of thing and if you do they might be to your taste. Either way, don’t let my personal preferences prevent you from at least giving them a listen.
Next on my list is an American band called Stellar Revival. I have somewhat limited internet access so it was about a week between them following me and me being able to get online and listen to their music. By the time I had a chance to they had unfollowed me. As a result I haven’t listened to their music, but if you want to, their website is:
Third on my list is another American band, or as they describe themselves an ‘industrial-metal/shock rock performance art act’ from Portland, Oregon.
Members
Their website is:
Their facebook page has a quite comprehensive ‘About’ page, but here’s a small sample just to give you an idea
‘Amerakin Overdose is an Industrial- Metal / Shock Rock performance art act from Portland, OR. Known for hypnotic dance beats and horror style theatrics, blended with heavy driven metal riffs, the band brings a very user friendly sound that promotes accidental cardio via involuntary movement of your head, feet and body. The combination of heavy dance music mixed with onstage antics are a freak show in action, a nonstop visual and auditory stimulate from the first note to the last. True to the band motto; they “Get Shit Done”.’
Apart from the bad grammar and slightly off spelling, I find their expression of intent slightly obnoxious.
I listened to three of their songs after downloading them from reverb nation.
Opinion
Er, no, just, no.
Seriously, that’s what I’ve got written in my notebook.
I see what they’re trying to do, it’s very much in the ‘Slipknot’ mould but it’s just not my thing.
Finally, because they’re the last in my notebook, a band whose music I actually liked, A New Tomorrow.
From London and formed in June 2009, they describe their music as modern rock.
Members
This quartet have a comprehensive website:
and their music is available on iTunes, Spotify etc. They also have a few tracks on sound cloud
Opinion
I listened to the tracks this band have on Spotify, their EP ‘Incandescent’ and the single ‘Believe’. On first listen I preferred ‘Love Utopia’ and ‘What they can’t steal from you’ because I found the lyrics of ‘Brighter than the sun’ and ‘Believe’ to be a little repetitive. On listening a second time I found that I actually quite liked all of them; the songs are enjoyable with a positive feeling about them.
Alesso Garavello’s singing is not necessarily to my taste, his voice is a little too high pitched at times, but still good. Occasionally (especially in ‘Love Utopia’) he sounds like someone has got his balls in a vice.
The guitars are not mind blowing, although they certainly seem competent enough, and Tim Hall is a steady and skilled drummer.
In other words, they’re okay, not quite as heavy as I usually like but still appealing. And they get extra points for spelling my name correctly when they answered a Tweet. I didn’t actually mean for them to answer it, I was just commenting on the music when I listened to it. But still, kudos for that.
And that’s the round up for this week.
Bye
Rose
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
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
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
Music
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
…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
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)
Everything Is Better With Dragons 