…And we’re back!
I decided to skip a blog post last week because I was a
little busy again, especially on Wednesday evening – which is when I tend to do
my posts – as I went to see Wintersun with Fleshgod Apocalypse, Arsis, and
Starkill. After that, I planned to post on Friday, but I got lazy, so I then
decided on Saturday, but I ended up going to see Black Sabbath instead. Surely
you can understand the delay.
Both shows were fantastic,
and I got to meet a few band members on Wednesday, including Francesco Paoli
from Fleshgod Apocalypse whom I got a photo with (he is an extremely nice guy), Parker Jameson from Starkill whom I shook
hands with (also a nice guy, though I wish I weren’t so timid that I may have
been able to chat with him a bit more), and technically
James Malone from Arsis whom I shyly waved at while walking away from the
venue. He noticed, so it counts? I only regret that I hadn’t taken any photos
of the show. Oh well.
Sabbath was also great. For having bought tickets the night
before the event, the seats we got were pretty good. They played such favorites
as “War Pigs”, “NIB”, “Paranoid”, “Iron Man”, and others, along with at least
three songs from the new album, “God Is Dead?”, “End of the Beginning”, and “Age
of Reason”. Iommi also teased the crowd with the first riff to “Sabbath Bloody
Sabbath” before cutting into “Paranoid” for the encore. That they didn’t play
the former was upsetting, but the show still kicked ass.
Anyway, I decided to include another rant with this post
while it might still be relevant, so here we go (the rant comes last, of
course)!
New SATYRICON Song-“Our
World, It Rumbles Tonight”
So Satyricon is a band I don’t think has been mentioned on
this blog as of yet. They’re one I enjoy, especially Nemesis Divina and parts of Now,
Diabolical. Their upcoming album, Satyricon,
is their first full-length and general release in five years, with their most
recent one being The Age of Nero. I
admittedly didn’t even listen to The Age
of Nero, as Satyricon was always considered by me to be “alright”. It took
me quite a bit to actually get into their music, and even afterwards it was
always just “alright”. Don’t get me wrong: Frost and Satyr are great musicians and Nemesis Divina is a wonderful album, but for the most part, I was
only ever relatively content with their music.
This opinion didn’t really change with their new song. I
knew that the band had a new album coming out, so I decided I’d give this song
a listen, as I don’t dislike them, but it was nothing all too special to me. If
anything, I found myself a little bored while listening to it, as nothing
really stuck out to me about it. I didn’t find myself really drawn to it like I
was Nemesis Divina or songs like “K.I.N.G.”.
It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything ground-breaking or too impressive,
either.
As someone who’s somewhat of a fan of the band, to a point,
I was probably only going to wait until the album was put up on YouTube after
it was released in order to listen to it anyway, though now I won’t really be
inclined to look it up immediately after word gets out that it’s uploaded. I’ll
keep the album’s presence tucked in the back of my mind in case I get bored one
day, though.
SATYRICON-Our World,
It Rumbles Tonight
Second New TÝR Song-“Mare
of My Night”
Yay!
Alright, so I won’t be spending much time on this song as I
did a more extensive post about Tyr’s previously released song, “Blood of
Heroes”, but it was worth posting about.
I’m pretty sure
this song is about sex. About ninety-five percent sure.
Actually, more like ninety-nine point nine-nine percent
sure. You can’t even say the lyrics include “innuendos”, no, they blatantly
state and describe sexual acts. I suppose that was expected, though, to a
degree, though I’m not entirely sure I
expected an entire song to revolve around the intimate relationship of two of
the characters that are a part of the story told throughout Valkyrja. Anyway, the song is great!
Especially the vocals in the beginning, as for a moment I didn’t believe that
Heri was the one singing. His voice is truly magnificent, especially in this
song, and the music has a galloping feel to it throughout, fitting with the
song’s description of a “mare”. The solo is
also a definite highlight of the song, and it makes me eager to hear what
others on the album will sound like.
If you like Týr or haven’t listened to them yet, I highly
suggest you listen to their new song!
TÝR-Mare of My Night (link)
Rant Time: The Little
Girl From America’s Got Talent
So I’ve already ranted about a few things here before, such
as metal elitism, bands and “fashion”, Varg Vikernes, etc, though this rant is
a little different. Kinda.
I’m sure by now we all know what little girl I’m talking
about…a little, six-year-old girl who went on America’s Got Talent with her nine-year-old brother, and she
apparently “shocked the world” when she performed her own song, utilizing some
form of black(?) metal vocals, if you could even call them that, to sing it.
Firstly, I cannot believe
I’m actually doing a whole rant for this. I can’t stand “talent” shows like
America’s Got Talent, American Idol, The X-Factor, and whatever other ones there are like them. They’re
a pathetic excuse for entertainment, and the entire principle of having “judges”
on said shows bothers me. Three people should not be the voices of the masses
when speaking on an entirely subjective portrayal of “talent”.
Secondly, the entire buzz this audition got really pisses me
off. This is nothing mind-blowing. I’m not going to be an ass and spout on
about how the girl was a terrible vocalist (she’s six – her voice isn’t even fully developed yet, though I can tell
you her technique was most likely terrible, seeing as how she sounded more like
she was just shouting as in a temper tantrum rather than using a decent
technique which, admittedly, would have made her better [though the judges may
have thought otherwise]), but everyone acted like this was something so new and
never been done before. The same people who thought that this was so shocking
and new are also probably the same people that say all metal is Satanic, which
shows further that they have no idea what the hell they’re even talking about
when they say so. Before I veer off into a sub-rant, let me get back on track with
why else this pisses me off, with point number three.
The judges didn’t let the girl pass through to the next
stage because they thought she was good (forget what Howie may have said, he
called it “screamo” and is a moron anyway). They thought it was shocking,
funny, and somehow ‘cute’. These people have no idea how to judge her style of
vocals. They have no idea how to judge her technique. And note how the crowd
was laughing from shock at what
Aralyn, I believe her name was, did. The irony of it, though, is that, had this
girl been throwing a tantrum in some aisle in a supermarket, nobody would have thought it was cute or
funny, and she sounded like she was throwing a tantrum while on stage. She was
not doing black metal shrieks or death metal growls. She was shouting like the six-year-old she is into the microphone.
Fourthly, why the hell
is her brother never even mentioned?
He was on stage, too, playing drums for his sister, yet it’s like he wasn’t
even there. Sure, he wasn’t going anything really great, either, mostly just
keeping the beat, but what do you expect? He’s nine. He’s not going to be doing
300 BPM blastbeats at nine-years-old. If you want to pass an act onto the next
round, pass the entire act. Judge the entire act. Don’t pass an act
just because you were too shocked by this talent that apparently has never been done before, according to
your reactions. After all, be it a mediocre one, it’s a talent show. Not a shock-and-awe show.
Though, what bothers me more than the audition itself is how
people reacted to it. I’m not talking about the shocked audience (probably
about 0% of which were metal-heads) or anything like that. I’m talking about
the fucking metal-heads that didn’t
want anything to do with attending
the taping of this embarrassment of a TV show. The metal-heads that don’t want
anything to do with any of those
kinds of TV shows.
Allow me to bring back this picture:
Also allow me to include a few tweets I sent out back in
June on the matter (read from bottom to top):
Yes, I must stress this, good on the children for having the
guts to go on a stage in front of the country and do something they and their
parents knew was not generally accepted in our society. Good for them for doing
that, and good for them for the music they like and wanting to pursue that. I
applaud them for that. However, it’s known that nobody likes to tell children how it really is. Nobody was going to
tell them they were bad, and nobody was going to tell them what the cold truth
of it was: “this isn’t going to make mainstream money, so we don’t want you, go
home.” These shows look for people who can make money because they go over well
in the mainstream. This act was not going to win, and you could see that a mile
away. Why their parents had any hopes that their children would progress on
this shit show with their act is beyond me.
Don’t even get me started on the special-snowflake mentality
the daughter had in one of the interviews, talking all about how she hates
Justin Bieber and the like. I don’t care if you’re six, sixteen, twenty-six…you
aren’t a special little flower just because you like metal, male or female.
Listen to it, play it, whatever…you aren’t special.
Anyway, going through some comments on the video of this
girl and her brother performing (bad idea, I know), the only thing that really
got under my skin was someone saying this girl was “the next Oneilar” or
something of the like.
FIRST OF ALL, Onielar is nowhere near finished her reign. She’s just getting started. It’s way too
soon to say we have a “next Onielar” on the way.
Secondly, that’s honestly insulting to Onielar. I’ve already
stated my opinion on the little girl’s vocals, – rather, as much of it as I’m
willing to allow myself to express – so saying that the two sound the same is
just a sheer insult from my point of view.
Thirdly, just no.
As for my follow-up tweets for the picture I tweeted and
showed above of Bruce Dickinson’s opinion on shows like The X-Factor, it really annoys me how practically everyone in the
metal community was so quick to agree with him, and yet so quick to completely
forget about that just to say how “good” this little girl’s audition was. Maybe
not good, but “cool”, I suppose. As I said, why do the rules suddenly not apply
to the auditioning participant simply because they’re considered “one of our
own”? Either you agree with Bruce or you don’t. Nobody is exempt from the rule.
If you think so, you’re just making yourself a giant hypocrite.
These children only got through because they were children. Period.
UP-COMING
BLOG TOPICS
-Wintersun
-Hate
-Dimmu Borgir
-"Irreligious" (a rant on
obnoxious practitioners of their religions/lack thereof)
-My "Top 10" of last year (Coming soon)
-More reviews! (Listed below)
-Whatever else I feel like
Up-Coming Reviews
Sammath Naur-Self-Proclaimed
Existence
Fleshgod Apocalypse-Labyrinth
Watain-The Wild Hunt
Others
