Category Archives: Reviews

Message to Venus

Since bands keep following me on Twitter, and I really need to do some writing right now (I find it therapeutic), I have decided to give in and write about them instead of complaining about it. Two bands followed me today: Message to Venus, from Puerto Rico/Florida and Strip no Alter, from Brazil. This post will be about Message to Venus. Shall we get started?

Message to Venus

Formed in 2009 by Puerto Ricans

  • Jandre Nadal
  • John Feliciano
  • Edgar Ramos
  • JuanMa Font

in Florida.

Contact Details:

  • http://messagetovenus.com
  • Twitter: @MessageToVenus
  • Facebook: Message to Venus
  • noisetrade.com/messagetovenus
  • ‘The Envelope’ is on Spotify

Releases

  • Single ‘Cold & Grey’ March 2010
  • EP ‘The Envelope’ February 2011
  • Album ‘Victims & Villains’ – soon

Opinion?

I actually quite liked their EP; it sounds a lot like 30 Seconds to Mars’ s second album ‘A beautiful lie’. I would recommend it if you like them. Actually, it’s a good EP whether you like Mars or not. Go and have a listen.

Rose

 

Review:Iron Man 3

Robert Downey Jr returns as Tony Stark in iron Man Three. Suffering from PTSD after the events of New York (The Avengers), Tony has hidden himself away in his basement working on the Iron Man suits, all 42 of them. Then a new threat arrives in the form of ‘The Mandarin’; bombs explode unexpectedly and leave no trace of their origin. Everyone is baffled. The past comes back to haunt Tony, and when his friend and former bodyguard, Happy, is injured in one of the explosions, Tony Stark issues a declaration of war.

This is a cracking film; funny, action packed and exciting.  I saw it in 3D, I’m not sure whether the 3D added anything to the film. This film is a great addition to the Marvel-verse family of films, and continues the story on from last year’s Avengers movie. I wait in anticipation for the release of Thor 2: The Dark World in November.

Bye,

Rose

I knew it was a mistake…

…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

www.artofdyingmusic.com

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)

Review: Mercians ‘We Don’t Even Live By The Sea’ EP

Pre-released 1st April 2013 for free down load as MP3’s

Release date 1st May 2013

Available for free download from their website (www.wearemercians.com) from 1st April 2013 – 1st May 2013, after which it will be available for purchase from iTunes.

Short (11 minute) EP showcasing three tracks – ‘Attention All’, ‘Cry Mutiny’ and ‘We Are The Kraken’.

They’re not bad at all; there’s definitely some talent there. Their lyrics are almost punk in sentiment, but stylistically they are very similar to many other young British rock bands, like Young Guns and Don Broco. The tracks grew on me; they weren’t immediately catchy but on repeated listening I found some unusual imagery and fairly sophisticated lyrics (they get extra points for not only knowing what the Kraken is, but for using it as a metaphor in a song).

Go on, have a listen; it won’t cost you anything will it?

 Bye,

Rose

[EDIT: I got a lovely Tweet from these boys last night thanking me for my kind words. (29/05/2013)]

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Thank you for your response. ✨

So, another band followed my Twitter today (still have no idea why people do that)

They’re a ‘Norwegian Band currently playing covers. self written material will soon come’, called

Rhyolite

That quote is straight from their Facebook page and is pretty much the only thing on their ‘About’ page. Their Soundcloud isn’t much more helpful either. But they do have a few tracks on it. I listened to their cover of Slipknot’s ‘Snuff’ and their own tracks (without lyrics). They aren’t too bad, but here’s the link for their stuff on Soundcloud if anyone is interested in listening:

And their other details are:

@RhyoliteOFFICIAL on Twitter

http://www.youtube.com/rhyoliteOFFICIAL

https://www.facebook.com/Rhyoliteofficial

 

Some bands follow me on Twitter…

 

And I finally got round to looking them all up. Here follows a quick summery of each band. I don’t necessarily like all of them but they might appeal to you so go check them out.

 

Dark Stares

www.darkstares.com

Facebook – Dark Stares

Twitter – @Dark_Stares

YouTube – Darkstares

Soundcloud – Dark Stares

A group from St. Albans, UK

The songs I’ve heard on their YouTube and Soundcloud pages are quite good with a fair bit of instrumental stuff. There are some live videos on the YouTube channel and they don’t seem too bad live. I’m not sure about the singer’s voice; it’s not bad but it would grate on me if I had to listen to it for too long.

The overall sound is not unlike ‘Queens of the Stone Age’.

 

 

Paper Tigers

Facebook – wearepapertigers

Twitter – @PaperTigersUK

YouTube – papertigersofficial

All their tracks are on Spotify, don’t get them confused with a Danish band of the same name who are also on Spotify and Facebook.

 

A group from Staffordshire, UK

They’re really good. I prefer them to Dark Stares. Their sound reminds me a bit of ‘Young Guns’, although I don’t like any of their songs as much as I like ‘Bones’. This band is competing for a place on the Red Bull stage at Download this year. If they win I wouldn’t object to going to see their set. I listened to their EP on Spotify and was quite impressed by it.

 

Avelyn

Facebook – Avelyn Band

YouTube – Avelyn Band

Their facebook page is in German, which isn’t surprising as this band is from Stuttgart in Germany, but I can’t read German so I have no idea what it says about them. I watched the videos they had on their YouTube channel instead. There were only two; the tracks weren’t bad but I don’t think I could listen to them all day.

 

Call Off The Search

Facebook – Call off the search

Twitter – @Calloffcalloff

http://calloffthesearch.bandcamp.com

Called it a day in February and went their separate ways, until recently when three of them got back together and formed

 

The Reason I Failed History

Facebook – The Reason I Failed History

http://thereasonifailedhistory.bandcamp.com

Described as ‘post-hardcore emo’ or as they so poetically put it in their Facebook genre description ‘Emo ya dad used to listen to’. They remind me a lot of really early My Chemical Romance, which isn’t exactly a surprise I suppose.

They’re alright.

 

Crash Midnight

Twitter – @CrashMidnight

www.crashmidnight.com

Describe themselves as ‘Boston’s bastard sons of rock and roll’.

I couldn’t actually listen to any of their music because their website is so awkward. Their debut album is supposed to be out this year; if it goes on Spotify I’ll try to listen to it.

 

Throw The Fight

Facebook – Throw The Fight

Twitter – @throwthefightMN

www.throwthefight.com

They also have Tumblr, Instagram etc, it’s all on their Facebook info page.

‘What doesn’t kill us’ (2012) and ‘The Vault’ (2013) are available on Spotify

These gentlemen describe what they do as metal-edged hard rock. They also have the most helpful Facebook page I’ve found so far. I listened to a few of the tracks from ‘What doesn’t kill us’ and all of ‘The Vault’ and I really like this band. They’re good. ‘Not so Hollywood’ is a very catchy tune; I can see what all the fuss on Twitter was about last summer. I think they sound very similar to Avenged Sevenfold.

 

Ready, Set, Fall!

Facebook – ready set fall

Twitter – @ReadySetFall

YouTube – readysetfallchannel

An ‘Alternative/Melodic Death Metal’ outfit from Genova, Italy.

Err, right, for a start I generally don’t go in for this end of the metal spectrum, I prefer songs to have more singing than shouting, but out of fairness I decided to give them a chance to prove me wrong about death metal and I listened to a few songs. Some of them were okay, but were all an awful lot like most of the genre that I’ve heard. If that’s your things, they might appeal. I’ll leave it to those with a greater knowledge of the genre to say whether they are any good or not.

 

Mercians

Facebook – wearemercians

Twitter – @mercians

www.wearemercians.com

www.reverbnation.com/mercians

YouTube – wearemercians (not to be confused with the Australian band also called Mercians – they sound quite different)

http://wearemercians.tumblr.com

 

 

A new addition to the list of my followers (I still can’t work out why people do that, I’m really not very interesting), this quintet formed last year in Staffordshire (so they really are from Mercia). They have all been in other bands. They describe the genre of their music as ‘Alternative rock, heavy rock, ambient rock’. They have an EP available for free download on their website until the beginning of May.

I listened to a couple of their tracks and they’re not bad at all. The tracks I heard on reverbnation were quite accomplished. The singer is capable and the rest of the band seems to know what they are about. The videos of their live performance in Birmingham last month on their YouTube channel certainly suggest they are quite good live although I did think the singer’s voice is weaker than I expected from the tracks I’d listened to. They definitely have something and considering how popular some of their influences are getting they should do well. They sound a bit like Don Broco, who they list as one of their influences.

 

And that concludes the tour of the random bands that follow my Twitter account.

 

Bye!

 

Rose

 

Review: ‘Irenicon’ by Aiden Harte

Irenicon

The Wave Trilogy Book 1

Aiden Harte

2012

Jo Fletcher Books

Sofia Scaligeri is Contessa of Rasenna, or she will be when she turns seventeen. If she lives that long. Her inheritance, the once great city of Rasenna, is divided. It is divided by jealousy, petty rivalries and old vendettas. It is also divided by the Irenicon, an unnatural river blasted through the city when the Engineers of the Concordian Empire sent the Wave to pacify the fractious city. Divided and weak, the people of Rasenna have retreated to their towers, leaving only to send raids into enemy streets.

When a young Concordian Engineer is sent to Rasenna to bridge the Irenicon the locals are suspicious, and the habitual violence blossoms into the opening stages of a civil war.  Opposing Towers circle each other, probing for weaknesses and delaying the bridges construction.

But the bridge must be built or the city will be destroyed once and for all when the Twelfth Legion arrives at the end of summer. Somehow Sofia, Giovanni the Engineer, and the Small People of Rasenna must find a way to unite the city before that happens. They are hampered by the suspicion and violence that inhabits the hearts of their people. They must have Faith in a world of Reason in order to succeed. Victory has it’s price and they will all have to pay it; Rasenna, and all of Etruria will have to change. But everyone has their secrets and not even love might be able to save them.

It took me a while to get in to this book, but once I got past the first dozen or so pages and managed to make sense of what was going on I couldn’t put it down. Sofia’s story of self discovery and personal evolution – from thug being given orders by her guardian to self-aware leader, and Rasenna’s concurrent transformation from divided, poor, violence ravaged, once-great city into a peaceful, wealthy and united community, is an interesting study in politics. There’s something of the polemic to this novel – we can only make things better if we build bridges and end violence; but ignore that if you want and enjoy the story. The characters are well written and sympathetic; their growth as characters explained sensibly, and the story line is good. A mix of historical adventure and fantasy, and an AU reworking of the Middle Ages where Rome was defeated by another Empire and Jesus died during Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents leaving the distraught Mary to pass on the message, and the water has it’s own consciousness.  This novel entertains and provokes thought. 3/5

The next part ‘The Warring States: Book 2 of the Wave trilogy’ is out this month; the library is ordering it for me. I’ll let you knoiw what I think.

Band from Grimsby, Hollow Days, not bad

My cousin shared this band’s Facebook page on his, and of course I had to go and have a listen. They have a couple of videos on the their page and this one track on SoundCloud. I quite like them, who know the locals could produce decent music? (I swear I’m joking, nobody from Lincolnshire/Yorkshire/the Humber lynch me )

Rose

Review: Ben Aaronovitch ‘Whispers Under Ground’

Review: Ben Aaronovitch ‘Whispers Under Ground’
2012
Gollancz

Ben Aaronovitch returns with his third DC Peter Grant novel. And what a return! It’s much more enjoyable than the second novel in the series, ‘Moon Over Soho’, although you really do have to read all three to pick up some of the long running story lines. The novel is narrated, as always, by DC Grant as he attempts to solve the murder of an American senator’s son, in London studying art and living with a half-fae with an inability to tell the truth when asked a direct question. Obviously there’s something a bit weird about the murder – like how on earth the deceased got where he did – so the Folly is called in to help the Murder Squad investigate. More precisely, DC Grant and PC Lesley May (unofficially officially).

It starts with a body on the underground, Baker Street appropriately enough, just before Christmas. It ends with an arrest just after Christmas. In between there is magic, sewer luge, rivers holding illegal raves, geek humour, an underground pig-powered pottery works, and a perplexed FBI agent. This is a very enjoyable book; a mix of the ever popular murder mystery, police procedural and supernatural mystery genres. It’s done exceedingly well; the story moves forward at a good pace, the characters are well rounded and realistic, and the dénouement is suitably surprising/sensible. There’s no deus ex machine here, despite the fact that two of the investigation officers are trainee wizards and one of the suspects is only slightly human.

Five out of five from me

Rose

Review: Fall Out Boy ‘Save Rock and Roll’

Fall Out Boy
Save Rock and Roll
Island Records
Producer: Butch Walker
Released: 15th April 2013 (UK), 16th April 2013 (USA)

After disappearing for four years to have a rest from each other and work on other projects (including other bands, solo albums and novels) Fall Out Boy return with their 5th studio album.

Clearly they were having a laugh when they named the new album ‘Save Rock and Roll’; which is fine because they were also clearly having fun when they made this album. The time apart has been good for them; they have made an album which clearly sits in the tradition they established with their other albums – catchy pop punk with electronic influences. Very obvious pop and electronica influences in this case; it has a tendency to drown out the guitars and drums. But this fusion of genres works for them. It suits their lyrical and vocal style.

The lyrics are occasionally corny – see ‘Just One Yesterday’ for a fine example. I’m not too sure about some of the collaborations – I can’t like ‘Rat a Tat’ no matter how much I try, sorry. My favourite songs are ‘The Phoenix’, ‘ My songs know what you did in the dark (Light ’em up), ‘Young Volcanoes’ and ‘Save Rock and Roll’. None of the songs are quite up to the standards they set with ‘This ain’t a scene, it’s an arms race’ and ‘Tnks fr th mmrs’, although the title track gets close. I can definitely see it being popular live; the line ‘No, No, we won’t go, we don’t know how to quit oh, oh’ could really get a crowd going.

They aren’t going to save rock and roll, but they might improve pop music a bit (besides, it doesn’t need saving, being very much alive and well) but this album is a catchy addition to the pop punk canon. It’s good to see them back.

And that’s my review,

Rose