Friday, September 19, 2008

Death Magnetic review

I grew up, along with my brother and sister, listening to the music my parents listened to, like anyone else. Luckily, my parents kick ass and listen to metal. We always listened to Q106 out of Lansing, or 97.9 WGRD out of Grand Rapids. Metallica was always on the radio, much like today. Metallica was our drug, and we listened to them every chance we got. Even now, when I hear Enter Sandman, I think of those Friday nights at Skateland in Ionia. Those where the days.

With the release of St. Anger back in 2003, I was beginning to think we had seen the end of Metallica. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when I heard Metallica was working on a new album, and they where getting back to their roots. I was somewhat disappointed when I heard their first single, "The Day That Never Comes" though. It sounded manufactured and soft, not as heavy as there old music. James can't scream as much as he used to, Lars needs to find his drumming groove again, and they need to get their flow back. The comeback of the solo's is much appreciated, since they where missing in St. Anger, but they don't flow as well as they used to. Maybe it's just me, but the guitar riffs and drum beats seem erratic, like they just thrashed around and said, "Yep, that sounds heavy enough.". Halfway through the song "Cyanide" is probably the best example. Just this heavy thrash on the drums with low bass and no flow, then it goes quiet to let James' now-soft-voice be heard.

With all that said, I still like the album. Besides "The Day That Never Comes", "Cyanide", and "Unforgiven III" (dear god why), the rest of the album is good. My favorite being "My Apocalypse" because you can hear some "...And Justice For All", and "Master of Puppets" influence. I have to wonder if they are either trying to change with the times and conform, or have just gotten old and wore out. I'm sure that after 8 albums, the old writing well may run dry. I'll always praise Metallica, and wait for them to truly return to their roots. 3-1/2 stars out of 5 for me.

*editors note* - After I started writing this review, I found an interesting article over here. Seems the mixing of the CD was, or is to blame for the poor quality, but the Guitar Hero 3 version sounds better. Scott and I have though about downloading the CD on Guitar Hero 3, but we don't play GH3 enough. Scott's busy with Bionic Commando Rearmed, and I'm still trying to get through Resistance and Orange Box. Also, it's $18 when the CD was what, $12?

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Dean came back!!!

Ah, Supernatural, how I've longed for your warm glow from my tv.

The 4th season of Supernatural has started, and with Dean coming back from the dead, Sam utilizing his demonic powers (with the help of Ruby), and the introduction of an Angel (Castiel?), it sure seems like this is going to be one great season. Hopefully, it won't be the last season though. I already have some theory's on how the season could end up going. With there now being an Angel on Dean's side, and a demon on Sam's side, I wonder if at some point they will have to come to some sort of clash?

Either way, I can't wait for more. Supernatural has just become one of those all-time favorite shows of mine, with it's great soundtrack, funny sibling rivalry, and evil demon/monster slaying of all kinds, it has it all. The next series I'm looking forward to having a new season is the Reaper, another of my favorite shows. Hopefully, that season premire is just around the corner.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

My very first blog

It's funny, I wanted to start writing a blog and get all the thoughts in my head out to where I can see them, but here I sit and I don't know what to write. I could always write about my life, what's going on right now, what I'm doing, what I'm happy or not happy with, but that always seems like I'm whining, and I don't want to be a whiner.

Well, maybe I'll write about what I'm doing right now.

It's break time here at work, I'm listening to "Bob and Tom in the morning" on the radio, working on some drawings, and thinking about how to fix all the problems I see with my life (i.e. money problems, living situation, weight loss problem, and lack of self-esteem).

I thought about starting this blog because of my interest in the 1up network lately. Jeff Green has left the Ziff Davis company, and will be blogging on this website, and that's how I learned about this website. On a 1up podcast, a listener asked a question along the lines of how to get a job as a game reviewer, and they answered with blogging and getting your name out on the Internet. So, this is why I wanted to write. Playing, writing reviews, and talking to people about video games is like a dream job of mine. I'd also like to make video games, but I don't really know how I would go about doing that, and with the rise of the indie game scene, you think it would be easy to figure out. I'm not saying I'm not happy being an engineer, sitting her every day drawing on my computer...getting fat...no, I'm not unhappy with that. Ok, maybe it could be better, but still, working in the video game industry would BE AWESOME!

So, now I have to figure out the direction of this little blog of mine. Maybe I'll write about lots of things, like what I'm doing in my life at that point, video games I've been interested in, movies, music, anime and manga I'm watching/reading. Yeah, I'll just write about everything! Should be easy...right?