FILM, MUSIC and LITERATURE
Dreams on Toast is the eights studio album by British hardrock band The Darkness. I bought the first two albums when they were released, then I kinda lost interest in the band. It’s mysterious, because I don’t know why. As far as I remember I lied those two first albums very much. But as I do basic research for this review I noticed that The Darkness actually broke up after their second and that it...
When I first listened to The Key to a Black Heart by Blood Mortized, I was tempted to criticize the production. The instruments blur together, and the dynamics could definitely be sharper. But you know what? I won’t hold that against them. It genuinely sounds like this is exactly what Blood Mortized intended — raw, heavy, and absolutely dripping with old-school spirit. And frankly, it sounds miles better than the early Black Metal pioneers, whose...
Sonic Boom is the Nineteenth Kiss album. With that said, I had a decent grasp of Kiss up until around Lick It Up in 1983. While I did acquire Animalize and Asylum, along with the Crazy Crazy Nights single at the time, I never really got into these albums. In recent years. I’ve started working my way through the albums chronologically and have written a bit about the first five at least. The musical quality...
In 13: Game of Death, when things can’t possibly get worse for Pusit—he loses his job, is drowning in debt, and misery seems to follow his every step—he finally gets a chance for a turnaround. Someone calls his cell phone and offers him the opportunity to win an obscene amount of money. All he has to do is complete thirteen challenges, and he’ll become enormously wealthy. The rules of the game are strict, though. if...
13 Assassins creates a political landscape in Japan in 1844. It sees the shogun’s half-brother rising ever closer to power. This greatly unsettles his opponents, as this half-brother is infamous for his sadistic tendencies. For instance, purely for his own amusement, he has severed a woman’s arms and legs, cut out her tongue, and kept her as a prisoner. He is, in short, a cruel ruler who believes in enforcing strict discipline among his subjects....
Backtraxx is the forth album by American band Every Mother’s Nightmare. On Wikipedia they’re listed as a Glam Metal Band but I don’t think that is correct. At least not in the most conventional sense. I would place them, at lest on Back Traxx closer to hardrock than to Glam. Although I would ultimately place them under Heavy Metal. There are some unusual instrumentation on Backtraxx though. I can’t say for sure because there are...
Surgical Steel is the sixth album from British metal act Carcass. I guess this should be classified as Death Metal. At least if you go solely on the vocals. There’s definitely death growls there. But not so deep guttural that it’s impossible to hear any of the lyrics. Not that I really took my time to listen very careful to the lyrics anyway. But that was more in the lines of that it wasn’t interesting...
What’s in Your Head is the sixth studio album from British band Diamond Head. A legendary band really and I’m really embarrassed that I don’t know more about them. And, that I lack so much of their music in my frame of reference. If you’re a Metallica fan I guess it’s dictated by law that you should know a few though. First and foremost Am I Evil?. That cem much earlier though and I think...
Bird in Paradise is the tenth album by Australian band The Cat Empire, a band I never heard before. At least not as I can remember. But, that being said, I’ve already listened to it four or five times back to back now. I really like the vibes and latin rhythms it brings. I usually like the latin style, even though I realize that there are loads of sub(latin)genres and that I can’t distinguish them...
Mercator Projected is the debut album of the English progressive rock band East of Eden. The band itself is a new acquaintance for me. According to all “rules”, I shouldn’t like this. It sound heavily dated to the 60s and I can’t really figure it out. It’s not the run-of-the-mill easy listening. Quite the contrary actually. It’s quite difficult get into it. There are a few “difficult” scales which really doesn’t suit my ears, and...
666 is the debut album by Dutch all-female rockers Cobra Spell. These ladies has attitude! The music is bluesy hardrock that kind of reminds me on some of Whitesnakes material, especially the vocals. Of course I’m not saying that vocalist Kristina Vegas voice is similar to that of David Coverdale. It’s just the way that it’s performed and sung that seems highly recognizable. 666 as an album seems very 70’s classic hardrock overall even though...
Dirty & Divine is the sixth studio album from the Swedish all-female hardrock band Thundermother. I’m really not too familiar with the band but from what I’ve heard through the grapevine they’re supposed to have a great musical drive. I’ve also heard that this album differs a bit from the previous ones. I’ts nothing that I really have first hand information on though, even though I will expore further after listenning to Dirty & Divine....
Vanishing Vision is the debut album om Japanese Metal act X Japan. At the time of the release they just called themselves X though. Apperaltny this was mean to be a tempoary name until something better came along but I guess the name stuck. At least partly. I have read up a bit about X Japan and they seem to have an “interesting” story to say the least. There is information about the breaking up...
