Last friday, Video Games Live came to Ottawa for the first time. So I armed myself with my Super Mario Bros t-shirt and went to see Tommy Tallarico’s attempt of making video game music relevant.
After seeing it, I have a few comments about the event, so let’s go right away!
Read on!
The Good
Lots of talent here. The orchestra itself was composed of local musicians, which, to my relatively untrained ear, seemed to play really damn well. Tommy Tallarico himself came on stage between each song to talk or show off his underwear (really), and he played some music himself with his electric guitar. Those were probably the most interesting parts of the show since the electric guitar backed by the orchestra sounded really good. Heck, even the Halo music sounded good with the guitar in the mix.
The intro of the show started with Pong, Pac-man and a slew of classic arcade titles. Most of which were low on music, but to compensate to that they played a classic tune that I can’t remember the title for, but added in musical and sound cues from the various games shown on-screen, though they did start playing the actual tunes when they got to games that had music. It was a very nice intro.
Classic game music played by an orchestra… it sounds awesome. In this representation we heard Castlevania, Megaman, Street Fighter 2, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, some Mario on the piano by Martin Leung (they should have gotten Tom Brier instead… and made him play a song he’s never played or even heard before… it would have been AWESOME… seriously search for him on youtube…) and some Zelda on the flute by Laura Intravia which was pretty good. All of the classic game tunes were very well arranged and fun to listen to.
It’s a generally fun event. In addition to the music, there were a few contests. 2 people chosen from the crowd (hint: wear a Tron shirt if you want to be chosen) fought it out in Frogger, with the music from the game being played by the orchestra, which was kinda fun. Before the show there was apparently a Guitar Hero contest, and the winner of that contest got to play some Guitar Hero on stage, with the orchestra and Tommy playing the music for real (with a prize involved if the player passed a certain score). There was also a raffle if you could manage to get a ticket for it.
The Bad
Too much modern gaming music. About half the setlist to be precise. Modern games don’t really have interesting music for this kind of thing. Due to not having any hardware limitations when it comes to composing video game music anymore, video game music has advanced to the point of being exactly like movie music (with every tune sounding more like it should be in a movie trailer rather than a video game). That makes it less interesting for Video Games Live since, well, modern game music is ALREADY played by an orchestra in the games (or at least made to sound like it’s played by an orchestra), so hearing it live is no different from what we’ve already heard before in the game itself, and that’s not interesting at all.
Overall
I think Video Games Live should really play to its strengths. Instead of making orchestral versions of music that’s already made by an orchestra, I think they should really concentrate on more classic video game music, and show off how awesome that music REALLY is. It would be a lot more interesting to listen to since no classic games had orchestra-made music, and wouldn’t just be a repeat of what is already in the games. And throw in some surprises too. Rather than just playing the classic and popular games, what about throwing in, say, Star Tropics music in there (it doesn’t have to specifically be Star Tropics, just, you know, something special and unexpected)? That would really be interesting.
Oh, and why no Earthworm Jim? I would’ve loved to see Earthworm Jim music played live, partly since it’s music actually made by Tommy Tallarico himself, he should exploit the shit out of that.
Overall, it was a nice show, if not a bit on the expensive side (and we even had the cheapest seats there). I paid more for my ticket to Video Games Live than I did for Iron Maiden and Rush last year (separately, not as a whole), which really seems like a bit much for it. But it’s a nice outing, well worth checking out if you’re a gamer.
Oh, and bring your 3DS. If you’ve had trouble streetpassing before… it won’t be a problem there.
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Well that took some time to come out. It’s been teased, and got release dates and delays, but we can finally listen to it.
If you don’t know about Powerglove, here’s a lowdown: They’re an awesome band that covers oldschool video game music, but with a great power metal style. They’re probably the best band in the video game music cover sub-genre. Not only do the cover the songs, but they take the tunes and they add in their own style and compositions, making the songs not only recognizable, but also making them their own thing at the same time.
This time, rather than doing video game music, they went through their childhood memories of watching cartoons and are doing covers of their theme songs, which is a fun idea. And for the first time they have a record label for their album, so you’ll be able to find it at local music stores, which is pretty awesome.
So read on and see if they’re as good with cartoon songs as they are with video game tunes!
Buy the album on Amazon.com
Buy the album on Amazon.ca
Buy the album on iTunes
Powerglove’s MySpace
X-Men
The original version of the song had some nice guitar and it was fun and fast-paced. This version just builds up on that. It takes the basic melody of the original and just adds more drums, more guitar solos and more awesomeness. Very fun song, if not a bit too similar to the original.
Gotta Catch Em All
Now that’s a song I used to love. And I still do. The Pokemon theme song from the anime series is one of my favorite cartoon songs ever. This version though? Well, let’s just say Pokemon has rarely sounded this good. It has some calmer moments, some badass solos, and it sounds very much like the original… Now there’s only one thing missing….
The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest
I’m not familiar with this show. At all. But I did go listen to the original opening, and this sounds very much the same, just metal. It has a bit of a Guilty Gear sound to it. It’s probably the weakest tune in the album though. It does have a nice solo in there, and the melody isn’t bad, but it’s just not as interesting as other songs in here.
This Is Halloween
I love Nightmare Before Christmas. Awesome movie. And this song? Well, it’s awesome too, amongst the best movie songs ever, and this cover is great. It really has that creepy atmosphere the original song has, and uses the same melodies and overall style, just with really awesome guitar and drums. Some parts calm down a bit to add to the creepy atmosphere. There’s no lyrics, but I think the song benefits from that in this case.
Batman
Rather than the cartoon theme song, which was rather bland, this is a remix of the Danny Elfman theme from “Batman”, the 1989 movie. This is unlike Powerglove’s other tunes I feel. It’s a lot more epic and orchestral, and it has a lot of other instruments than usual to complement to the epic feel of the song and the pace frequently changes without anything ever sounding out of place.
Transformers
Not sure about this one. It’s not bad, and it does have a lot of elements from the original song, but it feels kinda boring compared to the rest. I don’t know what it is with it that I don’t fully appreciate… It’s calming at parts, it has some really cool-sounding parts, and yet I’m not too fond of it. Not sure why. Maybe I’m just not that nostalgic when it comes to the Transformers.
Inspector Gadget
It’s weird… Some parts of this track (namely some of the beginning and a short segment at the end) are actually covering “In The Hall of the Mountain King”, or some remix of it, rather than the Inspector Gadget theme. It’s funny because people mix those songs up a lot normally too. BUT, upon further research in the depths of the Powerglove myspace blog, I did find that they were originally calling it “In The Hall of Inspector Gadget”, so I guess that explains this weird bit. Anyways… This is a very good song. There’s tons of elements from both the opening and ending credits of the show, and it just sounds really awesome all-around and features some really fast playing and just overall awesome moments. And the mix between “In The Hall of the Mountain King” and the Inspector Gadget theme sounds really good too, which is to be expected since both tunes sound really similar.
Heffalumps and Woozles (Winnie The Pooh)
This song exists for one reason, and one reason only: so you can say “Hey, did you hear that AWESOME Winnie the Pooh power metal song?” during a conversation, blowing everyone’s mind. Actually, this song is pretty badass. I haven’t seen the movie where this song is from (why would I watch a 1968 Winnie the Pooh short film anyways?), but I did watch the clip from the movie on youtube where this song is played, and it seems like Winnie is bad tripping after ODing on honey or something and starts seeing weird shit (not exactly as big of a mindfuck as, say, Pink Elephants On Parade, but somewhat in a similar style). And this song retains some of that fucked-up-ness from the original (specifically that really weird bit at the beginning of the song). And it also has a lot of a “pirate-like” sound to it for some reason. And there’s a lot of moments with different instruments which are interesting. Really cool, and one of the most memorable songs in the whole album. You’ll have it stuck in your head for quite a while.
The Simpsons (Feat Tony Kakko)
A third Danny Elfman tune? Fun. Probably the most easily recognizable tune in the album, The Simpsons theme here is unlike anything you’ve ever heard from the show. It takes the classic tune and turns it into a badass guitar solo. It sounds very familiar, but at the same time there’s a lot added to it that makes it sound like its own tune. The part with Tony Kakko spelling out/chanting “The Simpsons” in a very metal way just sounds awesome. Very enjoyable song for sure.
The Flinstones
For this one, I have 2 opinions. It’s very good, with high energy at some parts and it’s fun to listen to, but at the same time it’s incredibly repetitive and it’s WAY too long. It repeats the same parts a lot, and, when you think the song is done at 3 minutes 30 seconds, it starts up again from a previous part, not really adding anything to what we’ve heard before in the song. While it’s a very solid song, it’s easily the second weakest song in the album.
Gotta Catch Em All (Feat Tony Kakko)
You know what this song was missing at the beginning of the album? Lyrics. Well, here they are! And now the song is even more awesome. I’m not a big fan of Tony Kakko (from Sonata Arctica), partly because his voice is sort of weak if you compare to other awesome metal singers, but I think he does the job perfectly for this song. I find it funny that, other than a few lines, the lyrics in the pokemon song when sang by a metal singer really sound like a “normal” metal song. Weird stuff.
Overall
I’m pretty happy with the album. There’s some very solid songs. This is Halloween, Batman, Inspector Gadget, Pokemon with lyrics and Heffalumps and Woozles are AWESOME. The other songs are fairly good too.
If there is one big disappointment, it’s that one of the songs originally announced for this album is nowhere to be found. There was supposed to be a cover of Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid, and, according to older blog posts by Powerglove, the song has been recorded, so where is it? At first I thought Disney didn’t want them using one of their songs, but then I figured out that was wrong, since Nightmare Before Christmas and Winnie the Pooh are Disney properties. So I have no idea. And it was the song I was the most hyped for too.
One thing that really strikes me with this album is that Powerglove has really evolved from their previous album. Their playing hasn’t changed much, but their composition sure has evolved. It feels like these new songs have a lot better structure to them than their previous album. And the recording quality is noticeably better as well. Sunday Morning Apocalypse makes me really hyped for the next album, which will be video game music again. Can’t wait… whenever that happens.
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I just came back from the live Iron Maiden show at the Ottawa Bluefest. I’m generally not much of a showgoer, but when I learned Iron Maiden were coming to Ottawa, I just had to go. And they have Dream Theater playnig just before them for this tour, which is pretty cool.
It was my first time seeing them live, so here’s a brief recounting of my experience seeing the awesomest band in the world live!
Read on! (Note: there will be spoilers, so if you’d rather have the setlist be a surprise for when you see the show yourself, don’t read the first 3 paragraphs of the Iron Maiden segment)
Getting to the show/The Line
Getting to the show is quite a hassle. The outside stage was next to the Canadian War Museum, as usual for the Ottawa Bluesfest. Which is right next to downtown Ottawa. That means hard to find parking unless you’re lucky. We managed (after only half an hour) to find a parkometre which we could put enough time in to be able to leave the car there all evening (we could stop paying the parkometre at 5:30pm). That was around 2:30pm. We walk 20 minutes to the main gate for the festival, to find a long line, which took almost 3 hours to finally let us go in front of the stage. Oh, did I mention the temperature reached 42 degrees celsius, and the sun was intense, there was barely any wind and no shadows to hide in? It was crazy out there. The temperature did start cooling down during the Iron Maiden show, but the huge amount of people in the same place just made it hotter.
Dream Theater
I’m not a huge Dream Theater fan. Not that I don’t like them, but I don’t know them much and barely listen to them. I see them as a band with really good musicians, but a subpar vocalist. They started their performance at 6:45pm. I don’t know too many Dream Theater songs, and as such I can only name 2 of the songs that were performed: Constant Motion, which I love, and Panic Attack, which I heard once because of Rock Band 2. Their setlist included 6 songs in total, and the show lasted, including the random intro, 52 minutes. Not a bad length for 6 songs, but I expected a bit longer, especially considering that this made us wait almost an hour and a half for Iron Maiden… A song or 2 more in the Dream Theater show would have been perfect.
Seeing them live confirmed what I thought of the band. The musicians were all great. Sometimes even pure badass. The definitely made the show for me. The singer, on the other hand, was rather boring. He did nothing on the stage to hype up the crowd, he pretty much just stood there and sang (in a subpar manner, he really has no intensity or power in his voice). And I was surprised to learn that Dream Theater aren’t just one of those “studio bands” that only perform well on CD, they were really awesome (other than the singer).
Iron Maiden
They started at around 9pm. And the area just instantly filled up. Over 20000 people were there to see them, which is just about the maximum amount of people that could be there considering the space.
The setlist was good. Starting with The Wicker Man, The Ghost Of The Navigator, Wrathchild (which is an awesome old-school song) and El Dorado (new song, which you can download on Iron Maiden’s website) was pretty nice. Before El Dorado Bruce Dickinson (the vocalist), went on a big speech explaining why Canada is awesome, and told us to buy the new album coming August 16th (which will apparently feature very different songs from El Dorado, that we’d be “fucking” surprised). After El Dorado, we saw Dance of Death, The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg and These Colours Don’t Run. Then Bruce took some time to mention Dio, who died recently, and whom he highly respected as one of the top voices of metal (which is incredibly high praise considering how awesome Bruce is), and he sang Blood Brothers in honor of Dio. I’m not a big fan of Blood Brothers personally… You know what would have been REALLY awesome? Iron Maiden performing Holy Diver in honor of Dio… but that might have caused the universe to collapse under the awesomeness. Anyways, the show ended on Wildest Dreams, No More Lies, Brave New World, Fear Of The Dark and Iron Maiden (where Eddy came in and “scared” the band members).
But wait! There was an encore (sort of, it was obviously planned). And it remedied my only big problem with the show up until that point: barely any of the songs performed were pre-Brave New World, it mostly concentrated on “newer”, year 2000+ stuff (not a bad thing per say, but I prefer their older albums). For the “encore”, they did The Number Of the Beast, Hallowed Be Thy Name and Running Free (where Bruce takes time during the song to present the band members). 3 badass old songs to finish the show, genius! The show lasted about 2 hours which is a pretty good length I feel.
What I loved about this show is how full of energy it was. All the band members had an active role, running around and generally being awesome, but the star of the show is Bruce Dickinson. He was singing, while running around non-stop, while jumping over obstacles on the set and while climbing the speakers and stuff, and constantly getting the crowd to participate in the songs… He’s not just one of the greatest metal vocalists, he’s an awesome entertainer too. Oh, and the set was really nice. Tons of spots for Bruce to disappear into and re-appear from, quite nice looking, and, most importantly, a changing backdrop for every single song featuring awesome artwork. Nice.
The show’s only blemish would be the fact that they didn’t perform The Trooper… wtf? That’s like a mainstay of Iron Maiden live performances(from what I’ve seen at least)… Oh, and Bruce’s microphone sometimes fucked up a bit, but it was rarely noticeable.
Iron Maiden made it clear that they’re not just a studio band, performing just as well (though the overall sound does feel a bit different from the albums) live, and delivered an energetic and badass performance with a very solid setlist.
The Crowd
That was where the show took a small dive for me… On the positive side, I met some people who were really nice, and it was cool to see that a variety of people were there for the show… From kids to parents to old people, men and women… it was very nice to see Iron Maiden has such mass appeal.
But negatively… well, I know it’s a metal show, so I expected a little bit of pushing, people jumping around and doing devil hands and such blocking my view, having people taller than me standing in front of me blocking half the stage, and people smoking weed everywhere around me… and I have no problem with that, none of this annoyed me whatsoever during the show.
But there was something that did annoy me to no end: Having people running into other people to get closer to the stage (especially me for some reason), pushing them around and just generally being morons… What’s the problem with politely asking you to move so they can walk in front of you, or putting their hand on your shoulder to indicate that they want to move in front of you? Is common courtesy gone from the average metal fan? There has to be better ways to get in front of people that doesn’t involve ramming into them. People just have no respect for other people, and that really annoyed me (especially since I almost spent as much time, in the first half of the Maiden performance, getting pushed around than actually watching/listening to the concert). Heck, why didn’t those morons just get to the show earlier? It would have let them get close to the stage without “having” to act like fucking dicks. And no, they weren’t trying to start mosh pits. Good thing the pushing died down in the second half of the show.
Verdict
My legs are completely destroyed, my neck hurts from the headbanging, I’m out of energy for the next 3 years, I got a few sunburns, I can’t believe I managed to survive the intense heat, people annoyed the fuck out of me by pushing me around… and it was all worth it.
Dream Theater were fun to watch because of the great musicians, even if the vocalist wasn’t too good.
Iron Maiden is just a MUST see, no questions asked. If they ever come close to where you live, go see them. Even if you don’t like metal. Seriously, you won’t regret it. They put up a great show.
My first time seeing Iron Maiden was great, and I hope it won’t be the last. Come back to Bluesfest next year Iron Maiden, and get Powerglove to start up the show!
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Helloween is an AWESOME band… or at least were. In recent years their songs haven’t been nearly as good as their first few albums. And their 2000 album The Dark Ride had a few really good songs too. They did some great stuff, providing some great songs in the Power Metal genre. I mean, I Want Out is amongst the best metal songs ever.
When I saw this album at the store, I thought it would be a great idea. Orchestrated music, guest artists, and “re-imagined” versions of some of their best songs for the band’s 25th year anniversary. How could it go wrong?
Well… read on and see how bad it gets!
Song list/General Impressions
Well, this is a sort of “best of” album. It features previous Helloween songs that were originally awesome.
Dr Stein
Future World
If I Could Fly
Where The Rain Grows
The Keeper’s Trilogy (features: “Halloween”, “The Keeper of the Seven Keys”, and “The King for 1000 years”)
Eagle Fly Free
Perfect Gentleman
Forever & One
I Want Out
Fallen To Pieces
A Tale That Wasn’t Right
At first glance, this looks like it should be incredible. I mean, they added an orchestra to the mix, which should improve already great songs, or at least give them a new taste. But then you actually listen to the songs… Only about 3 of them are bearable, the rest just… suck. Instead of being “covers” of sorts with added harmonies by an Orchestra, they just go and make each song in a different genre, and that just doesn’t work. It just sounds like really bad parodies of the songs, and an insult to the original versions, and fans of the originals.
Just an example of what happened here: I Want Out (Original Version) and I Want Out (New version). The difference is staggering. And… What happened? I Want Out is one of the top Metal classics, but it’s reduced to…. whatever the fuck that is. The bastardation
Individual song impressions
I’ll just go and give my impressions of each song separately. Though listening to that sample above should be more than enough to see that the album isn’t worth it.
Dr Stein – Jazz? Blues? Kinda… Â It’s not the worst song of the album, and one of the few that’s not TOO bad, but the original is so much better it’s not even funny. After hearing this song when I put it in my car’s CD player, I realized that I wasted $15 on a terrible album. And it gets worse.
Future World – This is one of Helloween’s best songs… originally. I… can’t even detect what genre this remade version is supposed to be. But let’s just say it sounds like crap.
If I Could Fly – This song is from The Dark Ride, and it’s a really good song. It featured awesome vocals and very nice musical composition. Here… Hum… The vocals took a massive drop, like the singer isn’t even trying. And the music is sleep-inducing.
Where The Rain Grows – I kinda like the original’s “Let’s have fun playing this!” feel, with great guitar, fun drumming, some nice solos and pretty good vocals. This version just sounds like a really lame Pop song. There’s no redeeming factor to this version of the song. It’s just bad.
The Keeper’s Trilogy (features: “Halloween”, “The Keeper of the Seven Keys”, and “The King for 1000 years”) – This is the closest the album comes to having metal music, with some cool drumming. And this is the best song in the album, no doubt about it. But it pales in comparison to the original versions of these songs. It’s 17 minutes long which is a bit much, but it does mix 3 songs. It actually sounds kinda interesting (though some parts confuse me to no end). But the bad back-vocals destroy it, and the main vocals aren’t nearly as powerful and passionate as the original versions. An the music itself isn’t as fun. And they removed the incredibly awesome solos too, WHY!?!?
Eagle Fly Free – The original version of this song is just masterful. It’s pure awesome power metal. But this version? Hum… Sounds like shit. Plain and simple. I’m not gonna go morei n detail with this one.
Perfect Gentleman – This is one of the really fun songs made by Helloween. The original version was very fun to listen to, and unlike anything they made, but it was still metal. This version… is just weird. It’s not fun anymore, it’s just boring, and the new style doesn’t fit at all. Lame.
Forever & One - This was originally a ballad, and it remains as one, with the cool guitar replaced with slow and boring piano, and the passionate vocals of the original replaced with… some guy seemingly singing the song while sleeping. Oh and they removed the drums. Yuck.
I Want Out – I already posted both the original and new version up there in the post. Check the links out. The original version is one of the best metal songs ever. But this new version? There’s no way to describe how bad it is.
Fallen To Pieces – The original song starts out a bit lame, but quickly enough it becomes pretty fun to listen to, with good music and nice vocals. It’s not gonna become one of Helloween’s classics, but it’s not a bad song. This version though is not very good. But I don’t have much to say about this one since I’ve only heard the original a few times. The vocals aren’t nearly as good, but they’re not as bad as in other songs in the album. The music is not too great either, and doesn’t really remind me of the original version.
A Tale That Wasn’t Right – This one is actually not as bad as the rest of the album, but it still pales in comparison to the original. The singer is nowhere near as good as in the original, the music isn’t as fun to listen to. But it’s one of the “okay” songs in the album.
VERDICT
DO NOT BUY THIS. Really. If you’re interested in the band, or in great power metal in general, check out the bands 2 best albums, Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1 and Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2, those albums are incredible. This one? Well, if you really want to check it out there’s always Youtube or Torrent sites…
You know what I think? I think that this is intentionally bad, and that the band is joking around with us… but even if you go on with the joke and go at it with an open-mind… I just can’t imagine finding this appropriate for an anniversary album celebrating that band’s awesomeness. I genuinely feel insulted that Helloween released this.
If you want to see some J-Rock on Rock Band, go on jrockrevolution.com and vote for the bands you’d like to see, either as official Rock Band downloads, or on the new Rock Band Network!
You can vote for up to 10 bands. You can also vote multiple times for one band if you want to. For example, I put in 4 votes for Maximum The Hormone since they’re so damn badass 
Since there’s been literally no news on Rock Band Japan since it was announced, it’s great to see that someone is doing something to get some Japanese music on there for everyone to play.
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I love Power Metal. And one of the better bands representing the genre is Gamma Ray. They always have great guitar, great bass, great drumming, and some of the best singing voices in the genre. They’re one of those bands that didn’t lower in overall quality as the years went by, so all of their albums are really good.
Their previous album, Land of the Free II, was incredible, with none of the songs being bad, and most of them being excellent. It was truly something to behold. So obviously I was quite hyped up for this release.
Now, does To The Metal live up to their previous effort, or does it fall short?
Read on and see!
Band: Gamma Ray
Album: To The Metal
Genre: Power Metal
Release Date: January 29th 2010
Well, I think the best way to review an album is to talk about each song separately, so let’s do that. Just keep in mind, I have no idea how to review music, so let’s just go with the flow here. And since I have no idea how to review music, this is gonna be short and sweet. Or you can just skip to the end of the review to see my overall impressions.
Rise
All Gamma Ray albums start similarly. It’s always a song that says “Hey guys, we’re Gamma Ray, we’re awesome, and THIS is what Power Metal is all about”. Cool fast-paced drumming, good guitar, good lyrics and Kai’s singing is awesome as always. While not the best song on the album, I feel it’s the best one in the album to start things off.
Deadlands
This song is really good. Great solo, nice basic riffs, the drumming is great, the pace is really nice, the singing is great. Nothing to complain about here. It’s one of my favorites in the album.
Mother Angel
Meh. Yeah, I don’t know why but I’m not a big fan of this one. The pace is a bit slow and the lyrics aren’t too great. Yet it’s sorta catchy. My least favorite song in the album.
No Need To Cry
The slow song in the album. Gamma Ray has quite a few of those calm songs. This one is not too bad. It’s catchy, the lyrics are good and the music is nicely done. I like when they do this kind of song since it shows Kai’s voice from different angles, which is nice. Overall it’s an okay song. While not one of my favorite songs on the album, it’s the one that gets stuck in my head the most… go figure.
Empathy
The song starts calm, but it picks up fast enough. The pace is a bit slow here, but it has a pretty nice melody. The song itself sounds a bit dark too. It’s a pretty good song.
To The Metal
This song gets compared to Judas Priest’s “Metal Gods” song a lot, and that’s understandable. To The Metal has that more classic metal feel to it(it sounds a bit like Metal Gods in some ways). And it’s basically a tribute to the awesomeness that is Heavy Metal, just like Metal Gods. And it’s a very nice song. It sounds great and the lyrics are catchy, and I really love the more classic metal sound. Official Video Clip
All You Need To Know
Michael Kiske! Yeah! That’s right, Michael Kiske, one of Helloween’s former singers, is a guest singer for this song. It’s interesting since Kai Hansen, who created Gamma Ray, is a former member of Helloween from back when Kiske sang for them. Anyways… The song is quite good. Nice pacing, good music, the singing is good, and it’s nice to hear Kai and Kiske (Ky Kiske? yeah, that’s where his name comes from) working together again.
Time To Live
This one is okay. Not a really memorable song, it sounds a bit “basic” to me. But it has a nice rhythm, all the instruments are well played, and like all other songs on this album, the singing is great.
Shine Forever
The bass here is a bit more prominent than in the other songs, and it sounds great. After the cool bass intro, the song is fast-paced, the instruments all sound great, the rhythm changes are good, and the singing is nice with a good “raw” metal sound in the faster parts.
Chasing Shadows
The intro is a bit random. Afterwards the song gets really good. The guitar riffs are really cool, the drumming is really good, the solo is really cool and has a nice style.
Overall
Well, I’ll say it pales in comparison to the bands previous album. Land of the Free II was just THAT excellent.
To The Metal isn’t a bad album of course, most of the songs are enjoyable. The musicians are still great, Kai Hansen is still amongst the most awesome singers ever, and overall it’s a good album. Not amongst the best by Gamma Ray, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Fans of the band will love it, otherwise newcomers to the band might want to check some of their older albums first. It retains the band’s usual style. One thing is that none of the songs are really outstanding. Most of them are good, of course, but nothing incredibly awesome.
I’d say my favorite songs on this one are Deadlands and To The Metal(because of the “classic metal” sound).
]]>But the search wasn’t ENTIRELY fruitless, as I did manage to find something of interest that combines 2 things I love: old-school video game music and Power Metal. What I found was Power Metal band Powerglove.
Read on for a bit more info and a few songs to preview them!
First off, here’s their myspace. You can already hear a few songs on there:
http://www.myspace.com/vgmetal
And on their site you have links to their store to buy CDs(which are not too expensive actually) and other stuff, and a link to iTunes if you want to buy their songs on there.
I’m probably late on learning about them, since they’ve had their myspace account for 4 years already. But better late than never!
So, what they basically do is take old video game tunes, replace the main instruments with badass guitar, and add some double-pedal to the mix. And I’m quite happy that they DIDN’T add lyrics, that would’ve ruined it all. Â But they take a lot of liberties with most of the songs and add their own riffs. Some parts don’t really sound exactly like the “source material”, but you still get a similar feel to the old songs anyways, and you can still see similarities. So it’s not exactly covers but re-imaginings.
I do have a minor complaint. Despite most of their songs sounding really great, their costumes look like crap… It’s probably intentional, but damn they look stupid when they’re performing live with those exaggerated armors and all…
So, here are a few of my favorites!
Vanquish the horrible night (various Castlevania songs)
So Sexy Robotnik (obviously classic Sonic music)
Red wings over Baron (just because I really like FF4)
Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man (even though I don’t like mortal kombat, some of the music is pretty good)
And to add to all that, they’re currently recording a new album… Nice. It’s gonna have Johnny Quest, Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid (I can’t WAIT to hear that !!!!!!), Inspector Gadget, some Winnie the Pooh song, This Is Halloween (from Nightmare Before Christmas), the Flintstones, X-men and Pokemon (the theme song from the anime). Not really video game oriented this time, but still a fun little list of songs there. Actually, they also have another new album in the works, other than this one, which will be fully video game based (the only track they mentionned for this one is Snake Man from Megaman 3, which may or may not make it on there depending on how they like the sound when it’s done). So 2 new albums soon? Hell yeah!
So yeah… this was a pretty short post, but I wanted to talk about them since I really like their music. If you know any other bands of the sort don’t hesitate to tell me, I love discovering new music(as long as it doesn’t suck, of course).
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In general, AC/DC has always had its own unique sound. Overall great rock, high energy all-around, and just fun to listen to(and how can you not like).
It’s been 8 years since the last AC/DC album. So does Black Ice retain the same quality as previous AC/DC albums? Let’s check it out!
First, the song list. Well, 15 songs. That’s actually quite a bit. I normally buy heavy metal albums that have like less than 9 songs, so 15 songs really seems like a lot to me. Here is the list:
1. Rock ’n Roll TrainÂ
2. Skies On FireÂ
3. Big JackÂ
4. Anything Goes
5. War MachineÂ
6. Smash N GrabÂ
7. Spoilin’ For A FightÂ
8. WheelsÂ
9. DecibelÂ
10. Stormy May Day
11. She Likes Rock N RollÂ
12. Money MadeÂ
13. Rock N Roll Dream
14. Rocking All The WayÂ
15. Black Ice Â
Now, there’s lots of songs, but are they any good? Well, yes. You might have heard the hit single “Rock ’n Roll Train” on the radio or something, and one thing it does is show that AC/DC still hasn’t lost their unique style. This is very welcome, considering lots of bands lately have changed their style to appeal to the masses more (*coughgreendaycough*), and AC/DC shows they don’t need to do that to still be an appealing band.
The music is high on energy, the guitar/drums/bass are in perfect harmony throughout all the songs, and Brian Johnson’s vocals are great, he didn’t lose any of his voice(after all those years) that helps make AC/DC such an awesome band.
The songs themselves are well written and just plain fun to listen to. Not much more to say here. My favorites would be Rock ’n Roll Train, Skies On Fire, Spoilin’ For A Fight, Wheels and Black Ice , but really all the songs on there are good, there’s no bad song in there.
Overall, this is a great addition to AC/DC’s discography and every fan should get it. It stays true to their usual style and it’s fun to listen to. If you’re (somehow) new to the band, I suggest checking it out, you might really like it.
(yeah, that’s it. told you it was gonna be a mini-review, barely 300 words in there >_>)
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Release dates: September 12th 2008 in Europe(already out) and October 28th 2008 in North America.
CD TRACK LISTING:
- 01. Cosmos Rockin
- 02. Time To Shine
- 03. Still Burning
- 04. Small
- 05. Warboys
- 06. We Believe
- 07. Call Me
- 08. Voodoo
- 09. Some Things That Glitter
- 10. C-lebrity
- 11. Through The Night
- 12. Say It’s Not True
- 13. Surf’s Up… School’s Out
- 14. Small Reprise
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Well, when I read that Queen was making a return, I was ecstatic. Having been a fan of them for a while (but more in the recent years when i actually bought a few albums by them), I really couldn’t wait to see how they’d perform in this “Queen +” project.    Â
Click to see what I thought about it.
The album
So is it any good?
Well, saying it’s a bad album would be downright wrong. Â It’s got a really nice classic rock feel to it and that’s something very few bands can achieve nowadays. The instrumental quality is great and overall just really fun to listen to. The singer isn’t bad at all, and does a good job in most of the songs.Â
But is this Queen? The answer is no, not really. Though a few songs do have a bit of a Queen feel to it (Cosmos Rockin, Still Burning, C-lebrity), overall it doesn’t really SOUND like Queen. Part of the reason is because of the singer. As mentioned before, he’s not bad, he’s far from being as awesome as Freddie Mercury.
This guy was awesomeÂ
Overall
Again, it’s not a bad album at all, it’s just not Queen. The music is a different style, the back vocals aren’t close to being as great as in older songs, and the singer just isn’t Freddie. There are a few good songs though. Cosmos Rockin is really good, Still Burning is nice. The overall sound of the album is really good, though none of the songs are really memorable. Really it’s mostly good if you want some nice background music if you’re doing something else.
If you’re a big Queen fan you’ll probably like it, but if you’re new to the band, get a greatest hits or something, it’s not really representative of the band at all.