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February 8th, 2009
Testing…
February 7th, 2009
Testing something. Pay no mind. A reall substantive blog update will be forthcoming. I promise.
SuperBowl XLIII - Gameday Post
February 1st, 2009
UPDATE: 11:30PM
So, yeah. People all around me are setting off explosives, firing hunting rifles in the air and chanting HERE WE GO STEELERS!!!! God I love living in the country!!!!!!
YEAH!
So far, all I can say is... well...
Oh Yeah!
Not a Bruce Springsteen fan, so I'm skipping halftime. HERE WE GO STEELERS!!!!
Tobias Sammet’s Avantasia - The Scarecrow (2008)
February 1st, 2009
The Scarecrow (2008)
Whatever Tobias Sammet touches, in my opinion is gold. I'll make no bones about this. Whether it's Edguy or the previous Avantasia albums, Tobias just puts out albums that I flat out adore. The Scarecrow is no exception. Really. I'll go right out and say that you probably can click X right now, because I'm giving this album the highest rating I can.
From top to bottom and beginning to end, The Scarecrow was one of my favorite releases of 2008. There was just so much about it that was good and so little about it that was bad. I mean Alice Cooper is on it. What more do you need?
Every song is at least good, to great. There's nothing I can point to on the album and say "Oh, well, I'll just skip THAT one." Nope.
What I like so much about this album is that it has a different flavor about it. It isn't very much like the The Metal Opera albums. It has a fresh feel to it. Not that I'm saying that those albums were bad, but Tobias didn't try to re-invent the wheel here. He just ran into it and crafted something that was different, yet not SO out of left field that it ruined the experience. There is very little on this album that you can point to and say is plain old power metal. Hell, there's not that much on here I can point to and would say I could find on an Edguy album.
If I HAD to pick out some songs that I would single as my favorites, though. Well, Another Angel Down, the very trippy sounding Lost in Space, The Scarecrow with it's awesome folky intro and dual singing by Tobias and (one of my favorite vocalists) Jørn Lande, The very Alice Cooper sounding The Toy Master which is pretty apt, since Alice sings on it. Need I go on? In short, you have a little bit of classic power metal, wrapped up inside of a really neat package of hard rockish sounds, excellent vocals both by Tobias, guest vocalists and musicians.
One of, if not the best albums of 2008.
Bravo!
Rating:
BUSY week
January 28th, 2009
Woo, what a busy week. Whoo boy. Anyway, yeah I've been in nothing but meetings all week work-wise, so when I get home my brain is too fried for anything meaningful to be written, here. Fret not, though. I have a four day weekend this starting Friday (get every other Friday off and I'm taking the day after the SuperBowl off) to recharge so look for some reviews and other notes this weekend.
Reno
And Wiiiiiiiii!!!!
January 24th, 2009
So, yeah. My wife bought me a Wii as a late Christmas present. You may never see me again...
MAYBE looking for a contributor, and more…
January 20th, 2009
Well, I really should explain some stuff before I go any further, shouldn't I? A long time back I kept trying and trying to give shots at making HMAS.org work as a true zine. Turth is, I didn't have what it takes to run a zine. I didn't have time to conduct interviews, report news, and write opinion and reviews. I just didn't have it in me. HMAS did get relatively popular for a while, but that was because I just had the right core of writers as opposed to anything else.
So here we are in 2009. 10 years after I launched the original HMAS website. I decided to just run with a blog. Is it always going to be about music? No. When it IS about music is it always going to be about metal? Probably not. But I wanted a place where I could review albums on my own and at my own pace. I just didn';t want to have to be "the boss" anymore.
That doesn't mean I'm not open to people writing here, however. It just has to be the right circumstances.
I'm wholeheartedly looking for metal and rock fans to contribute, however I don't want it to be a structured quota like it used to be. if I bring anyone in to contribute this, they would have to want to think in a blogging mentality more than an article writing mentality. They have to be opinionated and passionate. They should want to wite about more than music. They should simply want to have fun.
So anyone interested? Hit me up at brighentij [at] gmail [dot] com and we can talk.
In either case, I plan to actually put effort into this (mainly ebcause I don't need to really put a lot of effort into it!)
That's all for now.
Superbowl bound!
January 20th, 2009
Well, my Steelers did it. We beat the Ravens for the AFC title and we are heading for Tampa for the Superbowl. I can't tell you how jazzed I am about this. Thanks to Stefan for pulling for us too, 
GO STEELERS!
January 18th, 2009
GO STEELERS!
All I can say, is that it's Sunday and my Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Ratbirds for the AFC championship this afternoon. One more and we're Superbowl bound, baby! GO STEELERS!
Off topic, but I LOVE when the idiot weather forecaster says we're going to get one to three inches of snow and we end up getting EIGHT. I don't know who I dislike more: Doctors, Lawyers or Meteorologists.
Bah.
Guns N’ Roses - Chinese Democracy (2008)
January 17th, 2009
Chinese Democracy (2008)
Well, here's an album with some excess baggage. It took Axl fourteen years to get this album out to the masses, and truth be told I don't think the album was worth the wait. To be fair, however, virtually no album is worth a fourteen year wait. Unless Jon Bonham somehow communicates his drumming from the grave and Led Zepplin can work with it to create a much anticipated reunion album, no album is worth a decade and a half wait. To put this in perspective, quite a few of the people I am sure Axl is hoping will buy this album, either wasn't born yet or at BEST was learning their ABC's when the last Guns studio album was released.
With that in mind, lets delve into this thing, shall we?
While I may have crapped on the album, a bit, by no means should you take that to mean that this is a bad album. Not by any stretch. I quite enjoyed Chinese Democracy. probably a lot more than others did. I'm sure a lot of people will be poo-pooing the album because it's not what they picture Gn'R to be, nor should it be. Slash isn't there. Duff isn't there. Matt's not there. It's just Axl, folks and he owns the name. You have to get used to this. once you set aside the fact that you're not going to hear Slash on this album it's much easier to stomach. If you want Slash, listen to Velvet Revolver if they haven't imploded, yet.
Overall I think that Chinese Democracy is quite a good album that suffers from some over production that obviously shows that Axl has spent years polishing it. There is so many layers and effects and filters in the songs that it makes me wonder how he'd ever recreate any of the songs in a live environment. Nonetheless, it's a personal feeling album. You feel like Axl is singing to you. His lyrics are just as layered and biuting as they were in the 80's and 90's. When he has an ax to grind, you definitely know. He doesn't hide his feelings for anyone. Axl has made another album where he wears his heart on a sleeve.
One thing that does lack, however, is that there is no memorable songs on this album. There is no Paradise City, Sweet Child of Mine, November Rain, Estranged etc. and in my opinion, that makes the album drop a few points. There is nothing on it that'll make it stand shoulder to shoulder with the past albums. Songs like Better and IRS are close, but not quite there. But that fact definitely casts a negative shadow.
Overall, however as an album stands it's not too shabby. Now, will we have to wait ANOTHER fifteen years for a followup? Only time will tell. Axl's off to a decent start in the new millennium. Only problem is, that it's eight years into the millennium.
Rating:
