And I hated them.

Well okay, hate is a strong word. I loathed the idea of them.

You see I had heard about them as much of the world had. Their (major label) debut album Ascendancy grabbed the metal world by the balls (with or without consent) and they were bestowed with the ever accursed title “The next Metallica.” I’ll never forget the sight of walking into my local Best Buy, and front and center on my left, right as you got into the music section, is the gigantic visage of the front cover of Ascendancy with like four, huge holders for rows of the CD. Right next to it, was a cutout of the band.

To almost 15 year old me, the idea of a band that looked like this being the next Metallica, my favorite band, was as maddening as it was confusing. How could this band, who looked right at home to next to the Screamo, Emo, and Metalcore bands I was seeing take over, be given such high praise? But something that never left my mind was the cover itself, it grabbed my attention. I never wanted to admit to myself at the time, but I loved it.

A year later roles around, and I find out that Kerrang is releasing a cover album of Master of Puppets, featuring newer and now-established bands. To my shock and surprise, Trivium did Master of Puppets. If I had been a betting man I would have put it on Sanitarium. I quickly acquired the release, and started the CD and went right to Trivium to see if they could do this, if they were good enough to do it.

And the rest is history.

A history that I’m retelling because I was there during Trivium’s next album, and the album that has become the holy grail to Trivium fans, Shogun.

Shogun is three things simultaneously to me:

It’s one of the greatest metal albums of all time.

It’s one of the greatest metal songs of all time.

And it is the best Trivium album of all time.

Does that give away the ending to the review? No, because all of this has a point.

THE SETLIST:

Top 3:

1. The Phalanx
2. In the Court of the Dragon
3. Like a Sword Over Damocles / A Crisis of Revelation

Pros: You know an album is an amazing album when you feel like leaving a song off the top 3 is doing it a disservice. As a Trivium fan this was like having Christmas and your birthday on the same day, there’s so much to love and gush about this album. A Crisis of Revelation would easily be at home among the best on Ascendancy. Songs like Shadow of The Abbattoir showcase the dynamic range that singer Matt Heafy has refined over years of experimentation, while epics like The Phalanx are literal lost cuts from their Shogun days. Also, can we just take a moment to talk about the monster choruses for songs like Like A Sword Over Damocles and No Way Back But Through?

One thing that has become a reoccurring sentiment in the metal community is that for the last few years since The Sin and The Sentence is that Trivium has been “returning to form”. Due largely to incredibly divisive releases after In Waves stemming from both the lack of a stable, reliable drummer who can play their music, and the loss of lead singer Matt Heafy’s voice in the early 2010s.

Well I can safely say that their reforming is complete, and what’s come out on the other side of it is an album that can stand toe-to-toe with some of its greatest hits.

And that’s what’s so great about this album, it took what The Sin and The Sentence started and realized that full potential, which was taking all of the elements that the band had acquired over the years and honed them. It took it one step further though, by finding the aggression that had largely been missing since halcyon days I had started the review off with. There were moments where I felt like a teenager again, a very hard thing to recapture.

This is Shogun 2 in all the right ways.

You go on this journey with each track and by the end of it, perfectly by the way with The Phalanx, you wonder, even entertain the idea if it really can dethrone Shogun as the best of all time.

Cons: Ordinarily, I would put a bottom 3 here, but there’s no reason to. Each song is unique enough, and dynamic enough, and hooky enough to where every single song at the very least surprised me with a riff or sequence.

If I had to even attempt to find a flaw in this masterful album, it’s that I felt I knew exactly where each chorus was going to hit and how, but can that even be considered a con when it was well done?

VERDICT: 9.8 / 10

I was very, very conflicted on whether I could give this a perfect score or not. I think one of the things I really struggled to also do was let it be its own thing. So much of Trivium’s efforts stand in the shadow of an album they released 13 years ago. Whether that’s the fans or even the band themselves, they’re oftentimes found standing in the shadow of nostalgia, something that will only get stronger with time.

Does In The Court of The Dragon dethrone Shogun as the best? No, it doesn’t.

However, it does something almost as important, it can stand toe to toe with it. It proves that looking forward to new Trivium is as exciting as going back and listening to the old.

The post [Review] Trivium – In The Court Of The Dragon first appeared on The Perge.

So I haven’t done one of these in a little while. With all the moving I had to do last week, I almost forgot that the new Tool album released last week.

Favorite songs:

• 1. Fear Inoculum
• 2. 7empest
• 3. Pneuma

Pros: Tool’s first album in 13 years. Does it live up to the hype? Honestly, it’s tough to say, but one thing can be said for certain, it’s a good album.Without a doubt the title track is the best on the album and one of my personal favorites of all of Tool. Even though it clocks in at just over 10 minutes long, it’s one of the least self-indulgent tracks on the record. Which, by the way, all of the actual songs are over 10 minutes, with “7empest” clocking over 15.

And yet somehow Tool makes it work. Each song feels like the guys in tool took 3 or 4 songs from each album, put them back to back, and then “remade” them, with just a sprinkle of new sounds and vocals here and there. It can be said though, that this is easily Tool’s most progressive work, no other album goes as over the top as this one in that regard, so progressive rock / metal fans will love it.

Least Favorite songs: N/A

Cons: Fear Inoculum (the album as a whole) is a really weird beast, in that I don’t dislike any of the songs, but I feel like some of them could be a lot more especially if they had been separated into simpler more digestible songs. I’m also disappointed in the lack of angry Maynard, and hell really Maynard at all, I feel like his vocals take even more of a backseat than they usually do. That’s why I said self-indulgent above, because you don’t ever feel like you’re missing a drum beat or guitar fill. Some could say that’s being satisfied, but to me, it kinda feels like Adam and Danny said “Nope, I’m gonna put in 3 minutes of just this riff, and that’s that.” I’m not satisfied with the album, but I’m content.

Rating: 7.9 / 10

Overall: The Tool of “Fear Inoculum” in a lot of ways has completely abandoned (or one could even say “evolved beyond”) the Tool of old. Even though Tool has always been progressive, they were always able to put it into digestible bite-size chunks until “10,000 Days”. And even though you had “Rosetta Stoned” and the “Wings” songs, you still could balance that with “Jambi”, “The Pot”, and “Vicarious”. But “Fear Inoculum” is literally 7 Rosetta Stoned’s. If you’re into that like me for the most part, you’ll enjoy it, but if you don’t? You’re probably not going to like this album.

[New note: Only change would be I listen to “Pneuma” significantly more than “7empest”. Score stays the same as well. If there is another EP now that Tool is free from their label or even another album, hopefully they go back to their roots a bit. Because if a 20 minute song comes out of Tool after this, they are just jacking off at that point.]

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So while everyone was busy with the inauguration, I was busy listening to Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes sophomore effort “Modern Ruin”.

So, review time.

Top 3 favorite songs:

• 1. Lullaby
• 2. Neon Rust
• 3. Modern Ruin

Pros: Frank Carter has had a very well rounded career up to this point, and I’ve followed him for a very long time. Where “Blossom” focused on the heavier aspects of his career, “Modern Ruin” veers more into the Grunge / Post-Grunge, very radio friendly territory of projects like Pure Love. The intro theme “Bluebelle” into “Lullaby” is incredibly strong, unique, and well written, dare I say an even better opening to an album then “Juggernaut” off of their previous album.

The other stand out tracks are the 2 closing pieces “Modern Ruin” and “Neon Rust”. Ruin is the only real aggressive song on the album, and while it doesn’t really stand against songs like “Paradise” or “Juggernaut”, the ending tempo speedup makes it stand out.

Bottom 3 least favorite songs:

• 1. Vampires
• 2. Jackals
• 3. God is my friend

Cons: Some folks on twitter were calling this album a “masterpiece” and while I will be quick to sing some of its praises, it is not anywhere near a masterpiece.

The dilemma of a Frank Carter fan, is just like I mentioned before, having gone through so many iterations, bands and sounds, you get a feel for when Frank is at his best, whether that be soulful soothing melodies or untamed British fury. But to me, Modern Ruin is less like a story, and more like a brief moment in the ascension of the band.

The opener is really strong, the ending is really good, but what you get in between are many songs that start the same way, at least 3 songs reusing lyrical content, and the same mid-tempo guitar riffing that makes me wonder if the boys didn’t sit down, write, AND record the album in like a week, it feels rushed.

Hell, Jackals isn’t even a minute long, and I don’t know if it was to appease the fans of old, but if you’re going to do the short, punk thing with a song, it should be vicious and in your face, not just repeating the last 3 songs in front of it.

Overall: 7.5 / 10

It’s a good album, an album I would own, but there’s just no comparison to Blossom, hopefully Frank and the Snakes get all the success in the world, and return with a third album that can really shatter expectations.

[New note: Overall I definitely don’t believe that “Lullaby” is a better opener than “Juggernaut”, not sure where my head was at there, haha. BUT, “Neon Rust” has become my favorite on the album and grown on me tremendously, as has “Modern Ruin”. I will say though, even with their album after disappointing much more than this one did, the review score stays the same.]

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So, it’s been a solid 7 years since Gorillaz last effort (I don’t really consider “The Fall” an “album”) and I decided to see (or rather, hear) what all the hype around “Humanz” was about.

Top 3 tracks:

1. Saturnz Barz (Spirit House) (feat. Popcaan)

2. Hallelujah Money (feat. Benjamin Clementine)

3. Andromeda (feat. D.R.A.M.)

Pros: Firstly, this album was not made on an iPad, in fact the strongest thing I can say about this album is that it is masterfully produced. All the songs “sound” good and are well mixed.

Secondly, there are a lot of tracks on this album, if you liked this album, you are going to get a lot of it, and much like Plastic Beach, features a myriad of artists from a number of genres in Hip Hop, Rap, and R&B.

Bottom 3:

• 1. She’s My Collar (feat. Kali Uchis)
• 2. Charger (feat. Grace Jones)
• 3. Sex Murder Party (feat. Jamie Principle & Zebra Katz)

Cons: This album is an absolute pile.

Sorry, let me explain that, this album is 6 years of wasted potential because Damon doesn’t give a fuck anymore.

This album, and Damon’s subsequent promotion for it are a train-wreck from top to bottom and commits some of what I consider are the biggest cardinal sins when featuring artists.

Damon said in early promo interviews “The album never goes under 120bpm”The first single “Hallelujah Money” is under 120bpm, as if going under 120bpm is the reason The Fall was bad, or completely forgetting the fact some of the best Gorillaz songs of all time are under or right at 120bpm.

Speaking of Hallelujah Money, Damon said when it was released that it wasn’t a single on the album and was “Not on the original album”, Except it was, and is.

Cardinal Sins you say? The featuring artist should NEVER start the song, never. Why? Because they are the FEATURED artist, not the main person. In Kanye’s song “Amazing” does Young Jeezy start the song? NO, is he the person singing the chorus? NO, but he does have a sweet verse because he’s…..FEATURED, it’s NOT HIS SONG.

EVERY SONG BUT PROBABLY 2 ON THIS ALBUM DO THAT, EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. SO IN ACTUALITY, IT SHOULD BE “VARIOUS ARTISTS – FEAT. THE GORILLAZ” and really it’s not even that, because only 1 song on the album even *remotely* reminds you that this is a Gorillaz album, and that’s Saturnz Barz.

Way back when, Damon said that “Plastic Beach” wasn’t originally a Gorillaz album but an album that he *gasp* wanted to use as a way to collaborate with people and showcase them, but then ended up turning it into Gorillaz album because reasons. Plastic Beach also committed the same cardinal sins BUT kept true to 2 things. There were songs that did NOT feature anyone, and the overall feel to the album was the same.

Worst of all, Damon sounds bored as fuck, he sounds like he phoned it in about as hard as you could, he’s turned down in the mix in most of the sections he’s in AND IT’S HIS BAND.

Andromeda is what did it for me, because even though it is the one song that Damon starts in, I never felt once during that song that “2D” was singing, it’s just Damon singing to about the same beat as every other song on the album, with no personality or none of it.

Humanz is Damon Albarn filling up his resume so he can go “Yea? That guy? Yea I worked with him, check out this thing we did”

4 / 10

I only give it a 4 because ultimately, there are some really solid efforts on here, and a couple of people who I will actually now seek out to listen to more of, but you know who I’m not going to actively listen to more of anymore? Whatever the hell Damon calls “The Gorillaz” now.

[New note: Nope, still garbage. “Saturnz Barz” I will occasionally put on, but every subsequent release has been infinitely better than this one. Song Machine 1 is the best Gorillaz record in a decade.]

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So, time for another album review!

After a couple stinkers this year, I was starting to wonder if the bands I follow are just getting tired or out of creative juice, thankfully Trivium proved that they still have A LOT more to prove. This review is about their new album released today, “The Sin and the Sentence”.

Sweet baby Jesus!

Top 3:

• 1. Beyond Oblivion
• 2. The Revanchist
• 3. The Wretchedness Inside

Pros: Trivium has returned! There are so many good things about this album that I don’t know if I can get them all. The guys in Trivium have truly returned to form, and for the first time since Shogun, have a clear and concise goal and sound, and it’s just amazing to listen to. “Beyond Oblivion” and “The Revanchist” are two of the best songs they’ve ever made. Period. Across any album they’ve ever done.

Even though I do a Top 3, 95% of the album is outstanding, all killer no filler. I also particularly liked “The Wretchedness Inside” is also a nice change of pace, harkening back to their earlier Ember to Inferno days.

Bottom 3:

• 1. Betrayer
• 2. Other Worlds
• 3. N/A

Cons: Ironically, the heavier of the singles “Betrayer” ended up being one of my least liked songs. It’s not even really a bad song but it’s just considerably “weaker” than the rest of the album. In fact I really only had negative things to say about that and “Other Worlds”, which also was decent but again, compared with the album just doesn’t do as good. I don’t think the singles did this album any justice whatsoever. BUT, I’m glad the singles were what they were, because it made the rest of the album a treat.

OVERALL: 9.3 / 10

This album has something for every Trivium fan out there. Newer fans who came in through Silence in the Snow will appreciate stuff like “The Heart from Your Hate” and “Endless Night”, and older Trivium fans will appreciate literally everything else.

[New note: I have to knock the album up to like 9.6 or 9.8, Other Worlds has become just as loved. Really I could call this a perfect album because I can sit down and listen to it top to bottom without skipping anything, but Betrayer is still ok. I didn’t want to include it in the original review, but what puts this over as tied for being my favorite Trivium album ever, is the Japanese bonus track, “Pillars of Serpents ’17” which is a rerecording of an Ember to Inferno track of the same name. Sounds even better than the original.]

The post [Review] Trivium – The Sin and the Sentence. first appeared on The Perge.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Two years ago today I saw The Force Awakens in theaters and was blown away. I figured I couldn’t pass up such a serendipitous moment and went and saw The Last Jedi. Annnnnnd…..9/10, phenomenal movie, on par with TFA.

I had heard how divisive it was, and quite honestly, I have to agree with what my good buddy Jon Gillett said earlier “2015: TFA is too much like the originals, its not good”

“2017: It does too much original stuff and therefor it’s bad”

Some people just can’t be pleased.

In fact that’s what I loved so much about this movie, it played with your expectations and swerved you when you least expected it to, and then swerved you again because HAHA you pseudo-intellectual critics and theory-making youtube nerds, shut up and let the movie tell its story before you call it bad, because your own projection of what you “thought” it was going to do, didn’t actually happen, and that yes, the movie CAN do that because apparently everyone forgot that space magic is a thing, the end.

Anyway, I recommend if you haven’t seen the movie by all means please do. If not for the fact that it’s a great movie, but also for the fact it was Carrie Fisher’s last.

Rest in Peace princess.

[New note: Yup, still the best, especially after Disney tried to course-correct afterwards with the following movie. Shame.]

The post [Review-ish] Star Wars: The Last Jedi theater experience. first appeared on The Perge.

So I’ve gone through all of Metallica’s newest album Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, and seeing as how Metallica is my favorite band, I’m gonna give it a review.

So…. Top / Most Favorite 3:

• 1. Here Comes Revenge
• 2. Spit out the Bone
• 3. Halo on Fire*

Honorable Mention

• 4. Atlas, Rise!

Pros: This was a phenomenal album, the mastering is miles ahead of Death Magnetic.

A personal favorite thing to me is the fact that Metallica have really embraced their Load / ReLoad era tones again, a ton of riffs throughout sound like they are straight out of those albums, frankenstein’d together with stuff from the Black Album and Death Magnetic.

Also Kirk’s solos sound like they have more personality this time around, and less like on Death Magnetic where it felt like they told him “And……..play really fast like Kerry King”

I also really like the art for it, in true Metallica fashion, they didn’t repeat themselves, and the new logo, which has that cracked *static* look, looks really cool.

Bottom / Least Favorite 3:

• 1. ManUnkind
• 2. Now that we’re Dead
• 3. Dream No More

Cons: Oh lord, The top 2 worst things about this album is 1. Lar’s Drumming, and 2. James’ Song writing

First lets talk about Lars, he does so *little* on this album that’s memorable that it’s getting to the point where you could program a Drum Machine to play his parts, and the thing is? I’m not one of those “80’s Metallica or no Metallica” people. My favorite albums are Load and ReLoad, so I grew up in the era of Lars toning it down, but even in the 90’s, he didn’t have to play fast to be memorable, Look at “Wherever I May Roam”, “Sad but True”, “2 X 4” or hell even “Bad Seed”, all of which HAVE super simple drum openings or beats, but it’s the little fills in between and the right accents that made them iconic. On Hardwired, Lars is basically the little drummer boy, he uses the snare more as a crutch then as an asset. Super fast section? Snare fill, Guitars doing semi-fill section at the end of a bar? Snare follows the guitars, he’s not even using the bass drum half the time when he’s doing this, which is only even more highlighted by the fact he’s always turned himself up super high in the mixes (which is kinda cool as a drummer myself but still). Ultimately it works most of the time because there’s just so much more speed and aggression this time around, but come on Lars, you’ve got more originality then that in you.

2. James, this has really been something since S&M, I’m not sure *exactly* how the writing of Metallica songs go anymore, but he used to be so much more, well, coherent? I feel like progressively each album, James writes a song like looking at a newspaper or a magazine, there’s the front cover (the title of the song) and then whatever meandering or off point group of words he can string together go into the song, and it’s absolutely NEVER directed anywhere “THE GRASS IS GREEN, THE GROUND IS HARD, I LOVE YOU, FUCK THE SPORTS SCORE, DREAM NO MORE” I just wrote a third of the songs on Hardwired, and I know people go “Well if you’re so good, why don’t you do better?”, that’s not my biggest beef, JAMES CAN WRITE THAT WAY RIGHT NOW, That is 100% why my top 3 songs are what they are, they are the most coherent, on point songs with direction than any other songs on the album. It’s sad that it’s gotten to this point, but I don’t even expect them to be good anymore, I just ask for ONE song to be even remotely well put together, it’s why Unforgiven III is my favorite on Death Magnetic, because its one of their best written songs EVER and the only one on the album that doesn’t suffer from that writing style, if you can call that a style.

Overall Score: 8 / 10

I know I went on ad nauseam about my 2 most critical points of the album, but ultimately, this is Metallica coming full circle, true thrash riffs with ripping solos but also Black Album / Load era songs with some dark alternative tones.Oh and I don’t ever want to hear about Napster ever again, they literally uploaded the entire album FOR FREE on Youtube for fans before the release.

And with that, I’ll leave you with my favorite song off the album.

[New Note: My favorites have changed a bit. “Spit out the Bone” is forever number one, it’s the one song I always go back to and keep in my listening rotation. “Confusion” has also bumped out “Here Comes Revenge” though I’d say it’s still great. I’ll also knock “Dream No More” out of the least favorite. Upon more listens it grew on me significantly. Score stays the same.]

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While most saw “Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens” on its premiere, I waited due to both work and well…”work” related faculties and man.

What else is there to say but simply, thank you Disney, thank you for giving me “a new hope”.

I won’t spoil anything for those who have seen it, but what isn’t there to gush about on this movie? I could gush about the use of the practical effects, or the amazing pacing, the characters, and on and on and on.

The one thing though, that this movie did, that Jurassic World got pretty close at doing, but this movie actually accomplished, was make me “feel” like a kid again, in a world mired by so many bad examples of corporate-fueled nostalgia or outright abuse of its fanbase, Star Wars felt sincere, literally, as so many have put it as “Star Wars: The Apology” well if that’s the case.

Then apology-goddamn-accepted Star Wars, I’m sorry there was ever anything between us.

Episode 7 gave me hope (nope not making the pun again) that not every venture is already “made”, that everything still has a “chance” to be redeemed, it just needs the right people, the right place, the right time, and the right care, thank you Star Wars, for chipping away at the abrasive cynicism that is all too easily gathered from years of disappointment in other fandoms and media.

With that said, if you haven’t seen Star Wars yet, go see it, because it was phenomenal and very much worth your time and money, and I will ABSOLUTELY, be at the premiere of 8.

The post [Review-ish] Star Wars: The Force Awakens theater experience. first appeared on The Perge.

So I went and saw Jurassic World today with Dad and Julian, and I can officially say that I’ve seen every Jurassic Park movie since the original when it came out (yes, even the first).

This post is gonna be semi-long and semi-spoilery so for everybody who wants the nitty gritty, this movie is the second best of the Jurassic Park series without a doubt, and at times touched the seat of Zeus where the first movie sits, needless to say, I was more than impressed. Considering Goldblum being in the second, and the fact that no one is happy in 2015 (according to the internet), that’s a hell of a feat for me, and don’t take my word for it, the cynical internet also rated it the second best on IMDB, to coin a phrase from the film “It’s pretty legit”.

I’m not really one to go super in depth, and certainly not on facebook, but I will say that every time I thought the movie had shown me its full hand, it either sideswiped me (in a good way) or it one-upped itself into being a better movie each time.But lets not get this mixed up people, this movie has a pedigree to uphold, and I think it did it more “honestly” than a reunion of the original would have ever even come close to doing, and that’s coming from somebody who would love to hear the Goldblum snarl-laugh again.It was retro, while also being contemporary, nostalgic while also giving you that new toy feeling at christmas, and still somehow found a way to carve a niche for itself in the franchise that would otherwise be impossible. If you’re still here, I didn’t just think it was a great movie, I “enjoyed” the experience, and for, if ever so brief moments, was transported back into the feeling I had in the 90’s as a boy, but in a much better way than nostalgia.

Doctor Henry Wu (the sole returning cast member from the original) makes a very important point when saying (and I’m paraphrasing of course) that they were always creating monsters, since the beginning, and my god the writers and director nailed that factor harder than well, something, something Alderan.

It kept the dinosaurs in the limelight, but always with a mystique, and the predatory Indominus Rex a true horror, the trailer spot with the shark does this movie’s CG no justice, CG is CG, but I was able to forget that most of the time. Belief suspended, well fucking done movie.Is this a somewhat bias review? Sure, but I’m sick to death of everything being over-analyzed and torn apart and criticized when no one is willing to look at just how important and well done the good parts are. No numbers here, but here’s to the inevitable trilogy of Jurassic World movies and if 2015 is any indicator of the “90’s Nostalgia” era of film to come, we have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Now go watch the movie.

Hahahrawrrahaha

[New Note: I broke the streak, I did not go see Fallen Kingdom because I had heard it was hot garbage. I am excited to go see the newest entry, however, which will feature Sam Neil, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum. We’ll see if it holds up!]

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